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THE 


STORY 


OF 


A 


STREET 



A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF 
WALL STREET FROM 1644 TO 1908 

BY 

FREDERICK TREVOR HILL 




NEW YORK AND LONDON 

HARPER 6- BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

MCMVIII 






•^"■^s^,,,. 



Copyright, igo8, by Harper & Brothbrs. 

jlll righls rcsencd. 

Published November, 1908. 



TO 
F. A. S. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 



PAGE 



I. The Cattle Guard i 

II. In Time of Peace — 7 

III. The Palisade 12 

IV. Pioneer Proprietors lo 

V. Captain Kidd and Other Pirates . 24 

VI. The Shaping of the Street ... 28 

VII. At the Wall Street Pillory • • • 35 

VIII. A Fight for Freedom of the Press 39 

IX. The Trial of a Cause Celebre . , 43 

X. The Stamp-Act Congress .... 50 

XI. The Prelude to the Revolution . . 52 

XII. Paul Revere and Coming Events . . 59 

XIII. The Merchants' Coffee-house ... 66 

XIV. The Revolution at Wall Street's 

Doors 72 

XV. Occupation and Evacuation .... 80 

XVI. Wall Street the Centre of Govern- 

ment 86 

XVII. Hamilton and the New York Bar . 91 

[V] 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



XVIII. The Continental Congress ... 96 

XIX. Washington's Inauguration . . . 104 

XX. From a Famous Door-step . . . . m 

XXI. Fashions and Notables 121 

XXII. The Passing of National Honors . 130 

XXIII. The Dawn of a New Era • ... 135 

XXIV. Politics and Brokerage 142 

XXV. The Latest Phase ir2 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Posting the Notice Which Located Wall 
Street, March 31, 1644. — "Resolved . . . 
that a fence or park shall be made begin- 
ning at the Great Bouwery, and extending 
to Emanuel's plantation, and every one . . . 
is warned to repair thither on Monday, 
being the 4th of April, at 7 o'clock, with 
tools to aid in constructing said fence. . . . 
Let every one take notice hereof and com- 
municate it to his neighbor. Thus pub- 
lished and posted on the day aforesaid." 
Translated from the original records, vol. 
iv.: 186, Colonial MSS. N. Y. State Library, 

Albany, N. Y Frontispiece 

The Cattle-guard of 1644. — The early records 
indicate that this rough fence was built 
almost on a line with, but a little to the 
north of, the present Wall Street. De 
Heerewegh (Broadway) terminated a short 
distance to the north of the cattle-guard, 
but existed as a path, or trail , beyond that 

point Facing p. 6 

Bird's-eye View of New Amsterdam. — Based 
upon original records and maps in New 
York Historical Society and Lenox Library, 
showing line of the cattle -guard of 1644 

which located Wall Street " 8 

[vii] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Wall Street in 1653. — Drawn from the orig- 
inal plans and specifications for the pal- 
isade, published by the committee act- 
ing for the Director General, Council, and 
Magistrates of New Amsterdam, March 15, 
1653. The line of the stockade was a little 
to the north of the north side of the present 
street. The southern side of the parade- 
ground marks the southerly line of the 
street as it is to-day, and the width of the 
parade-ground shows what a broad highway 
Wall Street really ought to have been . . Facing p. 14 

The Water - gate. Foot of Wall Street, 
1679. — Redrawn from the Dankers and 
Sluyter drawing. See Memoirs of the Long 
Island Historical Society, Vol. I " 16 

The Allaerdt View of New York, circa 
1668. (From the map of Renier and Josua 
Ottens.) — Showing palisade on line of Wall 
Street and the water-gate, or poort, at its 
eastern terminus " 20 

Bird's-eye View of Wall Street about 1735 " 28 
De Peyster and Bayard's Map of Wall 
Street from Smith (now William 
Street) to the Presbyterian Church, 

NEAR Present Broadway " 30 

Burning Zenger's "Weekly Journal" in 
Wall Street, November 6, 1734. — 
Based on original records and prints in 
Lenox Library and New York Historical 
Society. The buildings at the right are 
the City Hall and the Presbyterian Church. 
The original Trinity is indicated in the 
distance. The stocks, whipping-post, cage, 
and pillory are shown at head of Broad 

Street " 38 

[ viii ] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



City Hall, Wall Street, August 4, 1735.— 
Crowd acclaiming Andrew Hamilton on 
announcement of Zenger's acquittal . . Facing p. 48 

Bird's-eye View of Wall Street about 1774 " 58 

Wall Street in 1774. — To the right is the 
arcade of the City Hall; at the left the head 
of Broad Street; in the foreground a vender 
of "tea- water" from the pump near the 
Collect Pond " 60 

Broadside Announcing Captain Lockyer's 
Departure and Summoning Citizens to 
Murray's Wharf on Wall Street. — 
From original in possession of the New 
York Historical Society " 64 

Broadside Announcing an Arrival of Paul 
Revere's in New York. — From original in 
possession of the New York Historical 
Society " 66 

Wall Street from Water Street to the 
East River. — Showing Merchants' Cofifee- 
House on the southeast comer of Water 
and Wall streets " 68 

Wall Street, Sunday, April 23, 1775. — Ar- 
rival of post - rider with news of the battle 
of Lexington " 72 

Broadside Announcing Washington's Entry 
INTO New York. — From original in posses- 
sion of the New York Historical Society . " 84 

Wall Street in 1784. — Based on records and 
prints in Lenox Library and New York 
Historical Society. In foreground is the 
tavern at the corner of Wall and Nassau 
streets; adjoining it the dismantled Presby- 
terian Church; at the intersection of Broad- 
way the ruins of Trinity are indicated . . " 88 
[ix] 



ILLUSTRATI ONS 



Alexander Hamilton. — From the painting by- 
John Trumbull in the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art; presented to the Museum in 1881 by 
Henry C. Marquand, Esq Facing p. 90 

Old Watch - house. — At the southwest corner 
of Wall and Broad streets, on the site of the 
famous Mayor's Court " 94 

Federal Hall. — Erected on Wall Street in 

1789 for the use of Congress " 100 

Facsimile of Hamilton's Hitherto Un- 
published Letter to Richard Varick 
Concerning Tender of Federal Hall 
TO Congress. — From original in collec- 
tion of Hon. John D. Crimmins " 102 

Wall Street in 1789. — Federal Hall is shown 

at the head of Broad Street " 106 

Washington Taking Oath as President in 
Federal Hall on Wall Street, April 
30, 1789 " 108 

Wall Street the Centre of Fashion, 1789. — 
Based on old prints and documents in 
Lenox Library and New York Historical 
Society " 114 

Card from Paul Jones Published in " New 
York Packet." — From files of the New 
York Historical Society " 118 

A Warning by Washington's Steward. — From 

files of the New York Historical Society . . " 124 

One of the Earliest Certificates of Mem- 
bership IN Tammany. — From original in 
possession of the New York Historical 
Society " 132 

Lottery Scheme to Pay for Federal Hall. — 
From original in possession of the New York 
Historical Society " 134 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Trinity Church in 1804. — Consecrated March 

2 5' 1790 Facing p. I 50 

Wall Street During the Banking Period, 

1847-50 '• 154 

Wall Street in 1908 . " icg 



FOREWORD 

WALL STREET— the financial district- 
is an undefined territory of comparatively 
modern growth, teeming with news. Wall Street 
— the thoroughfare — is a narrow highway of 
comparatively ancient origin, crowded with his- 
tory. Few streets in the world are entitled to 
equal fame. In the annals of American history 
it holds a place apart. Along its course the de- 
velopment of a great metropolis can be traced; 
within its confines originated much that con- 
cerned the founding of the nation; upon its stage 
many distinguished men and women played their 
parts. Its story is part of our national heritage. 

Such is the tale that is told in these pages. 

A few years ago it would have been well-nigh 
impossible to reconstruct this historic highway 
with any accuracy, or to depict the scenes enacted 
on it, or to repeople it with those who foregathered 

[xiii] 



FOREWORD 



there, and to all the scholars and historians who 
have rendered this feasible the writer gratefully 
records his thanks, especially to the translators 
and compilers of the old Dutch and English 
records. 

He likewise begs to express his appreciation 
to Mr. Samuel Palmer Griffin; Mr. Dingman 
Versteeg of the Holland Society; Mr. Wilber- 
force Eames of the Lenox Library; Mr. John D. 
Crimmins, and the officers and officials of the 
New York Historical Society, for the courteous 
assistance which they generously afforded. 



October, 1908. 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



THE 

STORY OF A STREET 



THE CATTLE GUARD 

ON the morning of March 31, 1644, a man 
of clerkly appearance might have been seen 
standing at the entrance to the dilapidated for- 
tress of New Amsterdam, with a sheaf of official 
papers in his hand. It was not an inviting pros- 
pect which confronted the observer that raw 
spring morning, for the roughly built, wooden 
houses scattered about the fort looked sadly 
weather-beaten, and the straggling, ill-made 
roads and paths which served as streets were 
littered with refuse and rubbish of every sort 
and ankle deep in mud. Even the new stone 
tavern on the East River and the still newer stone 

[i] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

church, whose stanch construction had recently 
earned John and Richard Ogden a goodly build- 
er's premium, appeared decidely bedraggled. 
Grimy mounds of melting snow encumbered 
each step of their stair-like gables, and the dirty 
water which trickled from them like muddy tears 
gave a finishing touch to their melancholy aspect. 
Nowhere was there a sign of cheer or comfort, 
and the unpaved streets were wellnigh deserted, 
save for a few disconsolate individuals who idled 
about the doorways, silently watching the hungry 
hogs rooting among the road refuse or exploring 
the muddy ramparts in search of food. To the 
north of the fort a badly placed windmill made a 
brave show of activity, groaning and whirring 
under the gusty winds from the bay, but its wild 
twistings to the capricious gyrations of the rusty 
weathercocks gave an air of futility to its exer- 
tions that was far from relieving the depressing 
desolation of the scene. 

The man at the fort did not, however, waste 
much time in gazing at these discouraging sur- 
roundings. They were familiar to him in every 
dreary detail, for Cornelis Van Tienhoven had 
been Secretary of the Council at New Amster- 

[2] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

dam for many years, and if he had ever been 
disturbed by the prevailing v^retchedness of the 
tow^n, it had long since ceased to afford him the 
slightest concern. Slowly turning his back to 
the viev^, he tacked one of his official documents 
to the vv^all of the fort, and then sv^inging about 
and picking his way across the miry ground to 
a convenient tree, affixed another paper. The 
few spectators of this proceeding viewed it with 
undisguised chagrin, for communications from 
the government were not apt to increase the hap- 
piness of the little Dutch settlement. On the 
contrary, they usually portended the imposition 
of some new burden or the curtailment of some 
coveted privilege at the hands of his High Mighti- 
ness, Governor Willem Kieft, whose six years 
of misrule had taught New Amsterdam to re- 
gard his proclamations with unmitigated dread. 
Unwelcome as they were, however, experience had 
taught the inhabitants that it was not prudent 
to ignore them, and the Secretary had scarce- 
ly posted his notices before people began to saun- 
ter from their houses and gather about the im- 
provised bulletin-boards, the scholar in each 
group deciphering the script. 

[3] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Van Tienhoven's handwriting was easily read. 
Indeed, good penmanship was the only quahfi- 
cation he had ever displayed for his office, and 
that virtue had wholly failed to endear him to 
the populace, who hated the very sight of his 
clerical fist. The particular notice he had tran- 
scribed that morning, however, was singularly 
free of offence. It merely recited a resolution 
of the Director and Council of New Netherland * 
that a barrier be erected at the north of the set- 
tlement, sufficiently strong to prevent the straying 
of cattle and to protect them from the Indians, 
and "warned" all interested persons to appear 
on "next Monday, the 4th of April, at 7 o'clock," 
for the prosecution of this work, A more rea- 
sonable demand probably never emanated from 
the Director-General, and yet it unquestionably 
suggested the belated closing of a stable door. 
During the administration of his predecessor, 
Van Twiller, almost all the cattle of the colony 
had mysteriously disappeared, and, as the ex- 
Governor's recently acquired bouwerie was found 
surprisingly well supplied with live-stock, there 

' New York Colonial MSS. 4: 186. State Library, Al- 
bany. 

[4] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



were grounds for suspecting that some of the 
missing herds might have strayed in his direction. 
Kieft, however, was the last man in the world to 
investigate a trail of this sort, for there was 
honor among governors in those days, and Will- 
iam the Testy, though philosophic in no other 
respect, thoroughly believed in taking things as 
he found them. Indeed, rumor had it that his 
adherence to this belief was responsible for his 
migration from Holland, with his portrait adorn- 
ing the public gallows to evidence his bank- 
ruptcy, and a charge of embezzling trust funds 
hanging over his head. These stories may have 
been the invention of enemies, but there certainly 
had been nothing in his conduct as governor to 
discredit them, and for dastardly cowardice and 
wanton cruelty his record had been unsurpassed. 
Indeed, it was a close question whether the 
Indians or the Dutch had the best cause for 
hating this representative of the Chartered West 
India Company in 1644; but, however that may 
have been, both feared him equally and lost no 
time in obeying his decrees. 

It was not long, therefore, before the colonists 
were hard at work at the projected cattle-guard, 

[5] 



THE S T O R ^^ OF A STREET 

and within a few days it stood completed. There 
is no authoritative information as to how it was 
constructed, but there is evidence that it consisted 
mainly of untrimmed trees felled at the edge of 
the adjoining forest and piled together to form a 
sort of barricade, and that its northern line, run- 
ning certainly from the present William Street, 
New York City, to what is now Broadway, and 
possibly from shore to shore, marked the farthest 
limits of New Amsterdam, as it then existed, 
and practically determined the location of Wall 
Street. 

Such was the origin of the best-known thor- 
oughfare of the Western Hemisphere, and the 
same forest which supplied material for its ear- 
liest landmark doubtless furnished Adrian Block ^ 
with timber for the good ship Restless — an ap- 
propriate name for the first vessel launched from 
Manhattan Island, and prophetically suggestive 
of its most historic highway. 

* The discoverer of Block Island. 



II 

IN TIME OF PEACE — • 

DIRECTOR - GENERAL KIEFT did not 
survive his clumsy cattle-pen, for some three 
years after its completion the colony was relieved 
of his presence by the arrival of a new^ governor, 
v^hose advent w^as attended with truly royal cere- 
monies, and whose bearing and person suggested 
the very height of majesty. But the residents 
of New Amsterdam soon discovered that this 
kingly personage who had descended upon them, 
splendidly attired in a velvet jacket with slashed 
sleeves, a broad, drooping white collar, magnifi- 
cently slashed hose secured at the knee by a rich 
scarf tied in a knot, and a shoe adorned by a 
large, bravely colored rosette, had little of the 
aloofness characteristic of the wearers of imperial 
purple. Indeed, he had not been long upon the 
shores of his new domain before he was stumping 
over it on his silver-banded wooden leg, sticking 

[7] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



his nose into all sorts of odd corners, and order- 
ing a general house-cleaning in no uncertain tones. 
Tyrannical he undoubtedly was, but the sway of 
Pieter Stuyvesant was that of a benevolent des- 
pot, confident that he knew what his subjects 
needed better than they did themselves, and de- 
termined that they should have it whether they 
would or no, and under his domineering, paternal 
rule the condition of New Amsterdam gradually 
improved. 

The southern end of Manhattan Island was 
then much narrower than it is to-day. Pearl 
Street was its eastern boundary, and only a few 
hundred feet of meadow land separated Broad- 
way from the North River. Within these slender 
limits, and south of the so-called fence, there 
were, less than ten years after Stuyvesant landed, 
nearly two hundred houses, peopled by almost 
a thousand tenants, while seventeen well-defined 
streets were already plainly traceable, which, 
thanks to the energy of the choleric Governor, 
were fairly clean. The houses were for the most 
part crudely constructed of wood, but some of 
the more substantial boasted variously colored 
glazed brick laid in checker, and wrought-iron 

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'w. 







..■.,«s*x, ^ 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

numerals to mark the date of construction, and 
even the humblest roof supported an ornamental 
weathercock. Moreover, nearly every house had 
a bright bit of garden, and if the general appear- 
ance of the little town was not as tidy as it has 
sometimes been pictured, it was not the fault of 
the tireless potentate who, from the moment of his 
arrival, ceaselessly harangued, scolded, bullied, 
and prayed for his people. Meanwhile the com- 
merce of the community, which had been prac- 
tically annihilated by Kieft's disastrous Indian 
wars, gradually revived, and for six peaceful 
years the wharf on the water-front witnessed an 
increasingly brisk business, wherein the natural 
instincts of the Dutch trader appeared to good 
advantage. Then news of hostilities between 
the United Provinces and England turned Stuy- 
vesant's attention from civic affairs and brought 
into play his martial talents, concerning which 
authorities differ. But whether he was a hero 
or not at St. Martin, his wooden leg proves that 
he was at least at the post of danger, and he cer- 
tainly rose to the occasion in 1653, when his 
country's possessions were threatened by the 
enemy. Indeed, he displayed such a bold front 

[9] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



and such indomitable energy that he actually 
succeeded in inspiring the not too patriotic 
burghers of New Amsterdam with a little of his 
own spirit, and induced them to rush through 
some preparations for defence with really ex- 
traordinary speed. On March 13, 1653, the as- 
sembled burgomasters and schepens organized 
night and day patrols for guarding the ap- 
proaches to the city; directed the skipper of the 
vessel representing the navy to bend his sails, 
load his pieces, and prepare for every emer- 
gency; recommended the repair of the fort, 
and resolved " to surround the greater part 
of the city with a high stockade and small 
breastwork to draw in time of need all the in- 
habitants behind it and defend as much as 
possible their persons and goods against at- 
tacks." 

All this was accomplished at the morning ses- 
sion, and by the afternoon a goodly defence fund 
had been subscribed. Indeed, before two days 
had passed a committee of three was duly em- 
powered to supervise the construction of the new 
works, and the members of this committee en- 
tered upon their duties with such energy that 
[10] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the following notice* was posted and cried within 
a few hours of their election : 

" Notice. — The committee appointed by the Direc- 
tor General, Council, and Magistrates of this city will 
receive proposals for a certain piece of work to set off 
the city with palisades twelve to thirteen feet long, by 
the rod. Any one who wishes to undertake this work 
may come to the City Hall next Tuesday afternoon, 
hear the conditions, and look over the work. Done, 
&c., Mch. 15, 1653. 

" Let one tell it to another." 

Meanwhile, Stuyvesant was stumping along 
the line of Kieft's old cattle-guard, seeking an 
advantageous location for the palisade, and a 
brave picture the old war-dog must have pre- 
sented as, splendidly attired, with sword at thigh 
and hand on hilt, he surveyed the ground and 
advised his bustling committee to erect thj new 
defences some forty or fifty feet south of the old 
barrier and practically parallel to it — which ad- 
vice, being accepted, determined the southerly 
line of Wall Street. 

^Records of Neiv Amsterdam, vol. i., p. 69. 



Ill 

THE PALISADE 

ACTIVE as Committeemen La Montagne, 
^^Beeckman, and Wolfertsen (Van Couwen- 
hoven) were, they could not immediately publish 
their plans, but before the day appointed for re- 
ceiving bids the competitors for the contract were 
supplied with detailed specifications whose min- 
uteness left nothing to be desired. The contem- 
plated palisade was to be one hundred and eighty 
rods, or two thousand three hundred and forty 
feet, in length, extending from the East River 
(Pearl Street) straight across the island, skirting 
De iicere Graft (the ominously named canal 
which became Broad Street), and passing directly 
through what is now Trinity Church to a rise in 
the ground near the North River which afforded 
a natural breastwork. It was to be constructed 
of round wooden posts, twelve feet in length and 
eighteen inches in girth, sharpened to a point at 

[12] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the top, and placed in a line interrupted at inter- 
vals by larger posts, to which split rails were to 
be nailed two feet below the top. A sloping 
breastwork, a ditch, and a parade-ground were 
also contemplated, and lest all the minute par- 



jcSl- 



J 






ticulars which the careful committeemen set 
forth should not suffice, they drew the above 
plan of the whole work and spread it upon the 
records of the burgomasters and schepens, where 
it remains to-day, an abiding memorial of their 
thoroughness and zeal/ 

The bidding on these proposals was most en- 

^ Records of New Amsterdam, vol. i., p. 72. 
[13] 



THE STORY OF A S T R E K J' 

couragingly brisk, no less than four competitors 
entering the Hsts, the successful candidate being 
Tomas Bacxter, whose subsequent career as a 
pirate may, as has been suggested, have been 
inspired by his success in securing this award. 
But however that may have been, we know from 
the official records that he was paid in "good" 
wampum (then coin of the realm), ^ and that the 
the cost was divided as follows : 

1404 planks (@ 1 2 florins) 2106 florins 

340 posts 304 

Nails 100 " 

Transport 1 20 

For setting them up and carpenters' wages. 500 " 

or a total of about ^1300, from which it would 
appear that "setting them up" was even then an 
important item in the estimates of municipal 
contractors. Bacxter completed his work in 
about six weeks; but no enemy having appear- 
ed to test its powers of resistance, the enthusi- 
asm of the burgomasters and schepens speedily 

* The value of wampum, or "devil's currency," depended 
upon quality, and was regulated by law. (Ordinance of May 
30, 1650.) 

[14] 



< r 



?^ en 
3 rt 



r 

o ^-n 




THE STORY OF A STREET 

waned, and in spite of Stuyvesant's urgent re- 
monstrances the repairs to the fort remained 
wholly neglected. Indeed, when the question 
of paying for the palisade, breastwork, and ditch 
was presented to their worships, they stoutly de- 
clared that the West India Company was bound 
to defend its own property without expense to 
the citizens, and from this position they would 
not recede until Stuyvesant abandoned the excise 
duties imposed upon the inhabitants and sur- 
rendered to the civic treasury the revenue derived 
from that source. This masterly stroke of busi- 
ness was undoubtedly Wall Street's first financial 
triumph. 

About two years after this event Stuyvesant's 
raid against the Swedish settlements on the Dela- 
ware, and the attacks of the Indians at Hoboken, 
Pavonia, and Staten Island, caused the city fa- 
thers to look again to their defences, for it had 
been discovered that some sixty-five of the pali- 
sades had been chopped down for firewood, and 
that the whole work had otherwise fallen into such 
a sad state of repair that extensive renovations had 
become imperative. Probably it was at this date 
that the five bastions shown on what is known 
[15] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

as the "Duke's Plan" ' were constructed. These 
were small, two-gun artillery mounts, one of 
which projected from the wooden bulwark at 
what is now the head of Hanover Street; another 
covered the present site of No. 44 Wall Street, 
just west of William Street; a third stood on part 
of the ground now occupied by the Sub-Treasury; 
a fourth dominated No. 4 Wall Street; and the 
last commanded what was to become Trinity 
church-yard, from a point a little to the rear of 
the existing church.^ In addition to these for- 
midable batteries, the defences were further 
strengthened by nailing boards to the height of 
ten or twelve feet above the sharpened ends of 
the palisades, forming a sort of screen calculated 
to prevent the Indians from scaling the barri- 
cade; but as no enemy appeared, the war-like en- 
ergies of the burghers again subsided, and before 
long two gateways were constructed to facilitate 
communication between the townspeople and 
the farmers of the outlying bouweries. One of 
these openings, known as the Land Gate, was 
situated at Broadway, and the other, called the 

* See copy in possession of New York Historical Society. 
^ Innes' New Amsterdam and its People, p. 272. 
C16J 



p- ^ 




THE STORY OF A STREET 

Water Poort, pierced the stockade at what was 
then the river road (now Pearl Street),^ and for 
nine more or less peaceful years a steadily increas- 
ing stream of commerce poured through these 
narrow apertures. Then rumors of war once 
more caused them to be closed and barricaded. 
Again, as in 1653, it was the English who 
threatened, although no war had been declared, 
and again Stuyvesaut succeeded in diverting the 
inhabitants from the joys of successful trading 
to the less profitable duties of patriotism. From 
August 29, 1664, to September 2, the vigorous 
Governor, then seventy-two years of age, hopped 
and hobbled anxiously up and down the length 
of the palisade, encouraging and berating the 
workers tinkering at the defences under a hot 
summer sun; but patriotism was sadly lacking, 
and most of the labor was performed by negro 
slaves whose masters begrudged their services. 
Indeed, there was something pathetic about this 

'About this time (1655-56) the residents of Pearl Street, 
inconvenienced by the high tides, caused a sea-wall to be 
erected, and the space between this barrier and their houses 
to be filled in, making a roadway known as De Waal, or 
Lang de Waal. Incautious investigators have confused 
this with Wall Street, and their error has resulted in some 
astonishing "history." 

[17] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

final effort of the gallant old martinet to rouse 
the citizens to resistance, and those who have 
the right sort of eyes and ears properly attuned 
maintain that his shadow can still be seen o' 
nights striding defiantly through Wall Street, 
anxiously inspecting the vanished works, and 
that the sound of his cane and his silver-shod 
stump can be heard echoing through the deep 
canon of brick and stone. 

Unsupported as he was, however, Stuyvesant 
managed to keep his unwilling workers at their 
task until news reached the city that the Duke 
of York's war-vessels were in the harbor and 
that their commanders offered liberal terms for 
immediate surrender. Then the intrenching tools 
were thrown aside, and despite the Governor's 
prayers and remonstrances the populace virtu- 
ally welcomed the invaders. Doubtless resistance 
would have been futile, and submission to the 
semi-piratical attack was the part of prudence, 
but the lonely figure of the grim Dutch warrior, 
standing gamely by his guns, will always contrast 
gratefully with the crowd of discreet traders gap- 
ing at the enemy from Battery Park, and make one 
doubt the maxim defining the better part of valor. 

[i8] 



IV 

PIONEER PROPRIETORS 

THE town which thus easily fell into the hands 
of that royal buccaneer, the Duke of York, 
had grown during Stuyvesant's administration. 
In it the new Governor, Colonel Richard Nicolls, 
found no less than two hundred and twenty 
houses and over fourteen hundred people, while 
facing the parade-ground, designed for the ma- 
nceuvring of troops behind the palisade, there 
were at least ten dwellings occupied by a merchant 
trader, a wool spinner, a chimney-sweep, a tap- 
ster, a miller, and other estimable citizens of a 
similar class. Indeed, the house of the merchant 
trader — one Moesman — had been erected as 
early as 1656 on a portion of the site lately 
abandoned by the Custom House,* and was 
presumably the first residence known to Wall 
Street. 

* Now National City Bank Building. 
[19] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Nicolls attempted no disturbing innovations 
in the administration of the city which then be- 
came New York, and it is doubtful if he was re- 
sponsible for the alterations in the palisade which 
were made in the year of the surrender. How- 
ever, four of its five original bastions disappeared 
about that time, the one on the present site of 
No. 44 Wall Street alone remaining as first placed, 
and the so-called fortification continued in prac- 
tically this condition for nine years, when the city 
passed, without a struggle, into the possession of 
its former owners. 

This time the capture was effected in time of 
war, Admirals Evertsen and Benckes quietly 
sailing into the harbor during the absence of 
Governor Lovelace, and landing Captain An- 
thony Colve at about the foot of the present Park 
Place to take possession of the city and establish 
martial law. Almost the first act of this military 
governor was to demolish some buildings which 
had been erected just outside the palisade, the 
western line of which he then proceeded to re- 
build, turning it to the south almost along the 
present site of Rector Street. He also forbade 
all entrance to or exit from the city except through 
[20] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the gates' under penalty of death, and those ave- 
nues of communication were rigidly closed after 
nightfall. All this occurred before the spring of 
1674, and within a twelvemonth the city once 
more reverted to England under the terms of 
peace with Holland. 

The returning Englishmen found the city ob- 
viously larger than they left it, and steadily press- 
ing upon the northern barrier. Fully seventeen 
houses now faced the parade-ground lying par- 
allel to and immediately behind the palisade, its 
width of a hundred feet affording a sufficiently 
inviting frontage to induce the construction of at 
least one house of the first class, one of the second, 
and seven of the third, and giving promise of a 
generously broad thoroughfare — a promise des- 
tined to remain unfulfilled. 

Meanwhile the palisade, which had long out- 
lived its usefulness, was repeatedly repaired, and 
it was not until 1685 that the land immediately 
north of it became the subject of a notorious 
speculation which inflicted irreparable injury 

' The bastions were known as " Hollandia" and "Zeelan- 
dia." The gates were at Broad Street and at " Smit's Vly." 
(Innes' New Amsterdam and its People.) 
[21] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

upon the future highway. His Excellency Thom- 
as Dongan was the royal Governor at that time, 
and his sharp eyes, which rarely wandered from 
the main chance, quickly detected a business pos- 
sibility in this property. Indeed, he was in a 
position where he could materially influence its 
value, and if he did not make the most of his 
opportunity it will have to be conceded that he 
did the best he knew. Through the agency of a 
"dummy" purchaser — one Captain John Knight 
of his official staff — he secretly acquired from the 
Damen estate a strip of land a thousand feet long 
and eighty feet deep fronting upon the wall,* 
together with all the right, title, and interest 
which the sellers had in the parade-ground be- 
hind the wall, which they and every one else 
supposed would become the public thoroughfare. 
The day after this deal had been safely con- 
summated, however, Dongan ordered one Leon- 
ard Beckwith to survey the wall ^ and officially 
establish the new street, and so promptly did the 
surveyor set about his task that he returned a 
report within twenty-four hours, laying out a 

' N. Y. Register's Office, L. 13, pp. 124-150, Dec. 14, 1685. 
'Manual of Common Council. 1851: 406. 
[22] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

street not one hundred, but thirty-six, feet in 
breadth, and, presto! Dongan's eighty-foot lots 
became one hundred and twenty-four feet deep. 
By this financial coup the royal Governor achieved 
the distinction of being the first insider to make 
something out of nothing on the narrow, if not 
straight, path which resulted from his acquisi- 
tiveness.' 

' Captain Knight took title by deed dated December 14, 
1685; the warrant for Beckwith's survey is dated December 
15, 1685; his survey was made December 16, 1685. Knight's 
deed to the Governor was apparently dated before he ac- 
quired title (March 9, 1685), but his Excellency did not 
record the instrument for three years. (Manual of Com- 
mon Council, 1851, and records in New York Register's 
Office, L. 18, p. 64.) 



CAPTAIN KIDD AND OTHER PIRATES 

THREE years later Dongan again turned 
his attention to Wall Street, appointing 
commissioners to make an official inspection of 
the palisade and inform him as to its condition, 
the upshot of which was a report showing the 
Water Gate and the artillery mounts in ruins, 
the Land Gate tottering, the curtain palisades 
either prostrate or falling, and the land actually 
staked out for building purposes. Of this last 
fact, however, Dongan must have been even better 
informed than his commissioners, for he was then 
actively marketing some of his queerly acquired 
property, and by as strange a chain of circum- 
stances as was ever unearthed from the records, 
one of his lots passed into the hands of a gentle- 
man whose exploits have been recounted in verse 
and prose for more than two hundred years. 
This historic parcel of land (part of which is 
[24] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

now known as No. 56 Wall Street) lies opposite 
the head of the present Hanover Street, and one 
Browne was the original purchaser. Browne 
almost immediately transferred his bargain to a 
well-known citizen named William Cox, whose 
wife Sarah {nee Bradley) was destined to greater 
fame than he. Shortly after acquiring this plot 
Cox is said to have built a house upon it, and if 
this be so the building was the first erected on 
the north side of Wall Street. In 1689, however, 
he succumbed to what has since proved fatal to 
many dwellers on that highway, for the report of 
his demise says that he " took too much water in," 
and his widow, to whom he left his property, 
straightway consoled herself by marrying one 
John Oort. This gentleman fell a victim to her 
charms so speedily that she took out letters of 
administration on his estate, May 15, 1691, and 
the next day married no less a person than Cap- 
tain William Kidd, the future pirate, who thus 
became one of the earliest proprietors of Wall 
Street — a locality in which people have been 
treasure-hunting for over a century.^ 

' Kidd's residence was on Pearl Street. He also owned 
25-29 Pine (then Van Tienhoven) Street. After his death 

[25] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

But Captain Kidd was not the only pirate 
known to New York at the latter end of the 
seventeenth century. Indeed, the little city, with 
its rascally governors and its mixed population, 
many of whom were adventurous traders ready 
to turn almost any kind of penny, was for years 
a favorite stamping-ground of the sea-rovers, and 
their gorgeous persons became very familiar not 
only to Wall Street but throughout the whole 
town, where their confidential transactions with 
certain enterprising citizens laid the foundation 
of more than one existing fortune. 

Meanwhile the palisade still survived, and if it 
be true that the English laughed when they first 
inspected it, they kept up the joke a long time, 
for in 1692 — seven years after Dongan had had 
the street surveyed — it was once more repaired, 

his much-married widow became the wife of Christopher 
Rousby, and she and her latest husband, fearing that Kidd's 
alleged piracy would work a forfeiture of his property, con- 
veyed all the lands in which he had been interested to 
Viscount Cornbury, the then Governor, and received from 
him, in the name of Queen Anne, a deed giving them a 
title unclouded by Kidd's "enterprises." 

For these facts and for tracing Kidd's ownership of 
56 Wall Street the writer is indebted to Miss Jennie F. 
Macarthy, of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of 
New York. 

[26] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

substantial stone bastions being erected on the 
site of the artillery mounts at William Street and 
at Broadway, and three years later, just after the 
street had been partially paved, more renova- 
tions were attempted/ Indeed, a contemporary 
historian remarked that the maintenance of this 
wall cost the community some ;£^8ooo, and de- 
scribed it as "a monument to our Folly." Nev- 
ertheless, it was not until 1699 ^^^^ ^ committee 
of citizens petitioned his Excellency through the 
Common Council to remove it as an obstructing 
nuisance and utilize the stones of its bastions for 
the new City Hall.^ 

Then the end came, and with the passing of 
this ancient landmark New York ceased to be a 
walled city, and its new highway almost imme- 
diately became the resort of so many noted men 
and the scene of such dramatic events that for 
wellnigh a hundred years its story supplies a 
unique foot-note to American history. 

* Minutes of Common Council, vol. i., p. 412. 
^ Ibid., vol. ii., p. 82. 



VI 

THE SHAPING OF THE STREET 

HAD Captain Kidd revisited Wall Street 
some three-and-forty years after he had 
become one of its pioneer proprietors, he would 
have found himself in strange surroundings, 
and it is not at all probable that he would have 
realized the dignity or importance of the thor- 
oughfare from any external evidence. Indeed, 
the street presented, in 1734, a decidedly rag- 
ged and unattractive aspect. At its eastern end, 
or Slip, in front of the Long Island Ferry, stood 
the flimsily constructed Meal Market, whose 
transactions in corn and similar merchandise 
had been supplemented by a more profitable 
traffic in negro slaves, who were daily displayed 
in its stands for the benefit of those desiring 
to buy, sell, or hire such commodities, and on 
either side of this unsavory mart stretched 

a broken line of mean little wooden buildings 

[28] 



^1-.^ 


















BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF WALL STREET ABOUT 1735 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

extending as far west as William Street. From 
this point the prospect gradually improved, the 
Broadway end boasting some dwellings of neat 
and attractive appearance, but the north side 
remained entirely vacant save for four wholly 
dissimilar structures. The first of these, on the 
northwest corner of William and Wall streets, 
was the property of Gabriel Thompson, a tavern- 
keeper, beyond which loomed a huge, barn-like 
affair erected by the Bayards in 1729, for what 
they termed "the mystery of sugar refining" — 
a mystery which Wall Street has not wholly 
fathomed to the present day — - and adjoining 
this crude factory stood the most pretentious 
building on Manhattan Island — the City Hall— 
whose foundations had been laid in 1699 with 
the stones taken from the bastions of the old 
palisade. Beyond this, and almost adjoining it, 
lay the Presbyterian Church, a substantial brick 
edifice, and at the head of the street, on Broad- 
way, squatted the ugly, square little wooden 
building with a disproportionately tall steeple 
which had sheltered the congregation of Trinity 
Church since 1696. 

Such was the condition of the street which 
[29] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

had in less than half a century acquired political 
if not social ascendency over all other thorough- 
fares of the city which now boasted a population 
of nearly ten thousand souls. The most potent 
influence effecting this result had, of course, 
been the selection of the street as the site of the 
City Hall, for that building was not only the 
seat of government but the social centre, New 
York in those days being ruled by an aristocracy 
whose nod made the laws and set the fashions. 
The presence of Trinity Church had likewise 
given the street a certain social prestige, for it 
had almost immediately become the semi-official 
place of worship, with a pew reserved for the 
Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and other digni- 
taries, and its list of parishioners included many 
of the most notable people in the community. In 
fact, when Messrs. De Peyster and Bayard, who 
had purchased a large part of Governor Dongan's 
queerly acquired holdings of the northern front- 
age, enabled the Presbyterian Church to obtain 
a broad foothold, practically all the spiritual 
and temporal power of the city lay concentrated 
on the narrow, unlovely highway. Under these 
circumstances it is not at all surprising that 

[30] 



» a 



50 o 



^ :2 

o H 



-0° 

50 S 



p o 



Broad 3t. 

l^FT.BROAD 



Lot 



/<?4 




m.. ^ King St. ^ 




THE STORY OF A STREET 

well-to-do families soon began to establish com- 
fortable residences in proximity to the churches, 
that the mercantile and financial exchanges 
clustered along the site of the old canal to the 
very steps of the City Hall, and that that build- 
ing became the scene of almost every event asso- 
ciated with the early history of the rising city. 

As originally planned, the City Hall was far 
from a triumph of architecture, but it was 
dignified and spacious, affording accommoda- 
tions for a court- room, a jury-room, the Common 
Council chamber, a jail, a library,^ and a debtors' 
prison, to say nothing of space reserved for the 
Fire Department, whose water-supply was par- 
tially obtained from two Wall Street wells. ^ Se- 
verely simple as was the external appearance of 
this commodious building, it had cost no less than 



^This library, the first known to New York, consisted of 
1642 volumes indirectly bequeathed about 1728 by the 
Reverend John Millington, to which was added the col- 
lection of the Reverend John Sharp, the whole constituting 
the "Corporation Library," which eventually became the 
existing New York Society Library. 

^One of these, known as Frederick Wessel's well, was 
located on Wall just west of William Street; the other lay 
between Broad and New streets. {Old Wells and Water- 
courses of Manhattan, by Waring and Hill.) 
3 [31] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

;^4000, and the Earl of Bellomont regarded it 
as such a fitting monument to his administration 
that he caused his and the Lieutenant-Governor's 
coats of arms to be emblazoned on its walls. 
This solitary effort at ornamentation was, how- 
ever, ruthlessly destroyed within a few years, 
when the Earl became unpopular, and no further 
attempt at adornment was made until 1715, 
when Stephen De Lancey erected at his own 
expense an elaborate cupola containing a clock 
with four substantial dials.* 

Opposite the City Hall, and directly at the 
head of Broad Street, stood the cage,^ pillory, 
stocks, and whipping-post, whose victims were 
daily in evidence, reminding the citizens of the 



* ' ' Ordered, That the committee do treat and agree with 
some proper person for the making of a pubHc clock with 
four dyal plates." — Minutes of the Common Council, vol. 
iii., pp. 108, 136-7. 

DeLancey received a vote of thanks for his gift, February 

23: 1715- 

'"Nov. I, 1703. Resolved, That a cage, whipping-post, 
pillory, and stocks be forthwith erected before the City 
Hall." — Minutes of the Cojnmon Council, vol. ii., p. 244. 

"Nov. 2. 1710. Ordered, That the cage, pillory, stocks, 
and whipping-post be removed to the upper side of Broad 
Street, a little below the City Hall." — Minutes of the Com- 
mon Council, vol. ii., p. 425. 

[32] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

grim administration of the law at the seat of 
government. Indeed, Wall Street not infrequent- 
ly witnessed other ugly forms of retributive 
justice, for offending slaves were often paraded 
up and down the highway, receiving a fixed 
number of lashes at every corner; and although 
there is no record of any execution having taken 
place in the street, the first trial of importance 
which occurred in the City Hall involved a charge 
of treason, the penalty for which was death. 

The accused in this famous cause was Colonel 
Nicholas Bayard, and the proceedings demon- 
strated that New York had nothing to learn 
from the star-chamber methods of the mother- 
country, for no case was ever more tyrannously 
conducted from first to last than that which 
resulted in the conviction of the distinguished 
prisoner. Bayard was indicted on a flimsy 
charge based upon a petition criticising the 
government, and all the bitterness engendered 
by years of political strife found expression in his 
prosecution. Not only were the judges and the 
Attorney-General bent upon securing his con- 
viction, but the jury was selected to insure this 
result — one of its members being related to the 
[33] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

presiding justice and the others being almost 
equally disqualified. Under such circumstances 
a defence was practically futile, and amid a scene 
of great excitement, both within and without the 
court-room, a verdict of guilty was rendered and 
the prisoner promptly sentenced to die on the 
gallows. Wall Street, however, escaped wit- 
nessing this judicial murder, for a so-called con- 
fession was finally extorted from the condemned, 
who was then released, his discharge completing 
the mockery which politics had made of the law. 



VII 

AT THE WALL STREET PILLORY 

DESPITE its acknowledged prestige and 
manifest advantages there was very little 
evidence of Wall Street's prosperity or popular- 
ity at high noon on November 6, 1734. Indeed, 
a more silent and deserted highway could scarcely 
be imagined. Not a coach rumbled up or down 
its cobbled road-bed, no pedestrians were astir, 
and its houses showed no sign of life. In fact, the 
whole street, from the water's edge to Trinity, ap- 
peared to be in the possession of two men who 
stood near the pillory, whipping-post, stocks, and 
cage at the head of Broad Street, opposite the 
City Hall. One of those lonely individuals, how- 
ever, was a person of some consequence in the 
community whose presence betokened a public 
function of no ordinary importance, for Francis 
Harrison, the Recorder, was a dignified gentleman 
whose offices could be required only for affairs of 

L35J 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

state, and the paper which he proceeded to read in 
stentorian tones demonstrated that he was at- 
tending in his official capacity. For a time it 
seemed as though the worthy Recorder would 
have no auditor except the negro slave who stood 
at his elbow, but before he concluded a little 
group of officers sauntered up Broad Street from 
the direction of Fort George and paused to learn 
the occasion of this proclamation to an empty 
street. Solemn, indeed, was the occasion as 
disclosed by the Recorder, who with due form 
and ceremony recited an order of the Council, 
dated October 17, 1734, wherein and whereby 
it appeared that one John Peter Zenger had set 
up, printed, and published divers and sundry 
nefarious matters defamatory of the government 
and of His Excellency Governor Cosby in a news 
sheet or paper known as the ISfeiu Tork Weekly 
"Journal; wherefore it was decreed that certain 
issues of said paper, numbered 7, 47, 48, and 
49,* should be burned near the pillory at the 
hands of the Common Hangman or Whipper as 

* These and subsequent details are derived from a rare 
publication in possession of the New York Bar Association, 
entitled " Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter 
Zenger," issued in London in 1752. 

[36] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

a public warning to the writer and other evil- 
minded persons, and that the printer should be 
duly prosecuted for the injurious statements con- 
tained in his sheet. Very little of all this was 
sufficient to put the Recorder's slim audience in 
touch with the situation, for Governor Cosby's 
recent encounter with the local authorities over 
the case of the Weekly Journal was unpleasantly 
familiar to all the powers that were. Indeed, 
every one in town knew that His Excellency 
had overreached himself by ordering the Mayor 
and City Magistrates to attend the destruction 
of Zenger's paper, and that those functionaries, 
quick to resent an infringement of their liber- 
ties, had instantly denied his right to impose any 
such duty upon them, flatly refused to lend their 
presence to the scene, and forbidden their hang- 
man to execute the Governor's decree. This 
angry clash of authority had been followed by a 
petition from the Sheriff^ praying that the public 
whipper be designated as the person to apply the 
torch, and when his request had been denied the 
coerced official had appointed a negro slave to 
act as his deputy, and the public had decided by 
common consent to support the local authorities 
[37] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

by shunning the scene of action at the appointed 
hour. 

Such was the explanation of Wall Street's 
deserted aspect, but Recorder Harrison was 
equal to the occasion, and the four offending 
papers were duly burned by the Sheriff's humble 
substitute, to the thorough satisfaction of the 
spectators, who gravely watched the flames until 
the last scrap was reduced to ashes and then 
turned on their heels, with an exchange of formal 
salutes, Harrison retiring to the City Hall and 
the oflicers to their local barracks. 

It would be difficult to imagine a more child- 
ish performance than this whole proceeding, and 
even from a childish stand-point it was far from 
a success, for the fire was not a good one and its 
flames were poorly fed. Yet of this tiny blaze, 
started in Wall Street in the fall of 1734, came a 
mighty conflagration which wellnigh lit a world. 




BURNING ZENGER S WEEKLY JOURNAL IX WALL STREET, 

NOVEMBER 6, I734 

(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



VIII 

A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 

JOHN PETER ZENGER, whose editorial 
pages were thus cleansed with fire, was not 
the ablest journalist of New York, and Governor 
Cosby, whose administration he attacked, was 
not its worst Executive. The whole history of 
the city, however, had long been an inglorious 
recital of greed, corruption, incompetence, and 
arrogance, the royal governors having included 
a gentleman who made the seaport the most 
desirable of all piratical resorts; a noble per- 
sonage who took pleasure in masquerading in 
woman's clothing and exhibiting himself in this 
guise, with the pleasing delusion that he might 
be mistaken for Queen Anne, and a solemn 
nonentity who took himself so seriously that 
he exacted more deference and reverence than 
would have been accorded to his royal master. 
In fact, all the powers that were, including the 
[39] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

landed gentry and the personal and political 
favorites of the provincial court, displayed an 
undis<yuised contempt for the masses, affecting 
an elegance of attire in which dress swords, 
ruffled shirts, silk stockings, and short-clothes 
served to emphasize the class distinctions. Not 
all the members of this little aristocracy, how- 
ever, were Englishmen, for no more proud or ex- 
clusive dignitaries ever strutted than the Dutch 
patroons; and when the ponderous travelling 
coach of one of those Lords of the Manor lum- 
bered down Wall Street's cobbled roadway, on 
official business bent, there were few who dis- 
dained to court recognition, while the populace 
frankly stared with admiring wonder, many of 
them cap in hand. 

It was this condition of affairs that had brought 
Zenser to the front as the nominal editor and 
publisher of the Weekly Journal, which had, as 
a matter of fact, been established and largely 
supported by James Alexander and William 
Smith, two able lawyers, under whose active 
leadership a popular party was rapidly form- 
ing. 

Zenger himself was a young man of more 
[40] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

courage than education, whose boldest utterances 
read very mildly in these days of unbridled de- 
nunciation; but any criticism of official actions 
was then regarded as presumptuous, and his 
shafts evidently hit the mark, for the destruc- 
tion of his pages had been planned as a most 
impressive ceremony, and the humiliating fiasco 
which had resulted virtually forced the govern- 
ment to take further proceedings in defence of its 
dignity. Some ten days later, therefore, Zenger 
was arrested at the instance of Governor Cosby 
and lodged in jail, where he remained for many 
months in default of excessive bail. Meanwhile 
the public began to take an unprecedented in- 
terest in the affair, and, under the energetic 
leadership of Alexander and Smith, such a strong 
sentiment was aroused in favor of the accused 
that the Grand Jury refused to find an indict- 
ment against him, and the Attorney-General was 
compelled to resort to extraordinary measures to 
prevent his release. This merely intensified the 
popular feeling, however, and before long all the 
scattered opponents of the government rallied to 
the slogan, "Freedom of the press!" and united 
in supporting the imprisoned editor, whose cause 
[41] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

immediately became a political issue of far- 
reaching effect. 

Never before had the general public been 
identified with any determined effort to secure 
freedom of the press in America, and far-seeing 
men throughout the country, including Benjamin 
Franklin and other aspiring journalists, watched 
the struggle with keen interest, while in New York 
the opening moves of Zenger's counsel resulted 
in such sensational developments that public ex- 
citement was kept at the highest pitch. 



IX 

THE TRIAL OF A CAUSE CELEBRE 

ZENGER had been confined in the City 
Hall, and it was here that the lawyers for 
the defence began the proceedings which were 
destined to assume historic importance. These 
public-spirited advocates were no other than 
Messrs. Alexander and Smith, under whose 
covert patronage the Weekly 'journal had been 
founded, and their appearance in the cause 
was particularly obnoxious to the government, 
which rightly suspected them of having per- 
sonally contributed some of its most offensive 
material. Moreover, only a few years earlier 
they had virtually abolished the Court of Ex- 
chequer expressly convened by Governor Cosby 
for the destruction of Rip Van Dam, a popular 
official, and to punish Chief- Justice Morris for 
his decision in that case the angry Executive had 
removed him and appointed James De Lancey 
[43] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

in his place. De Lancey was a jurist of ex- 
ceptionable ability, but a thorough partisan of 
the government, and Zenger's counsel had good 
reason to know that their client would receive 
very little consideration at his hands. Their 
first move, therefore, was to challenge his and 
the associate-justice's^ right to sit upon the bench, 
and regardless of consequences the petition for 
their removal was presented to the very men 
they were seeking to depose. Both the Chief- 
Justice and his associate had been appointed 
during the pleasure of the Governor, and not 
during good behavior, and this illegality it was 
claimed absolutely disqualified them from hold- 
ing court. There was no little shrewdness in 
thus appealing directly to De Lancey's sense of 
propriety, but it was too much to expect that a 
man of his character would scruple to judge his 
own case, and if the audacious attorneys enter- 
tained any such hope they were speedily unde- 
ceived. Indeed, they had no sooner filed their 
application than the indignant jurist met their 
defiance by significantly offering them an op- 
portunity to withdraw it, and upon their re- 

' Frederick Philipse. 
[44] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

fusal he made short work of them and their 
attack. 

"You thought to have gained a great deal of 
applause and popularity by opposing this Court 
as you did the Court of Exchequer," he exclaimed 
to the presumptuous counsel, "but you have 
brought it to this point that either we must go 
from the bench or you from the bar!" Where- 
upon he struck their names from the roll of 
practising attorneys and the prisoner was thus 
left unrepresented at the very outset of his fight. 
This sensational development, however, merely 
served to intensify the popular feeling, for John 
Chambers, another attorney, almost immediately 
undertook the defence, and at the last moment 
Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, the most dis- 
tinguished advocate of his day, volunteered his 
services in behalf of the accused. 

Such was the situation on August 4, 1735, 
when the greatest crowd which Wall Street had 
ever harbored gathered at the City Hall clamor- 
ing for admission, and before it dispersed a long 
step had been taken toward American inde- 
pendence. 

The little court-room to which only a small 
[45] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

percentage of the crowd gained admittance, 
presented a brilliant picture when the prisoner 
was called to the dock, for the judges wore the 
rich robes and long judicial wigs familiar to 
English courts, the lawyers were arrayed in the 
picturesque wigs and gowns officially prescribed 
for barristers, and all the functions and cere- 
monies of English legal procedure were careful- 
ly observed.^ Moreover, the audience included 
almost all the prominent government officials 
appropriately attired for an affair of state, and 
many army officers whose smart uniforms con- 
trasted sharply with the sombre but effective 
dress of the popular party. Never before had 
Wall Street witnessed a similar gathering, and it 
was never to see its like again, for a new era was 
dawning when the people opposed their rulers 
in that crowded court of law. 

Hamilton opened the proceedings by admitting 
his client's publication of the papers in question, 

' This is probably the first case in New York ever tried 
before a "struck" jury. Court order authorizing this was 
entered July 29, 1735. 

Judge Smith states in his History of New York (vol. i., 
p. 316) that the New York judges and lawyers never wore 
gowns in colonial days, but there is evidence to the con- 
trary at the date of Zenger's trial. 
[46] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

and announcing that he would rest his defence 
on the truth of the statements they contained. 
Thereupon an extraordinary legal battle en- 
sued, the Attorney-General and the Chief-Justice 
joining in an attack upon the eminent Pennsyl- 
vanian, and endeavoring to ride rough-shod over 
his contentions. But Hamilton, though enfee- 
bled by old age and ill-health, more than held 
his own, and when he at last acquired the right 
to address the jury, he rose to the occasion with 
the most powerful plea for freedom of the press 
that the New World had ever heard. So master- 
ful, indeed, was his argument that the Chief- 
Justice felt constrained to counteract its influence 
by virtually directing the jury to convict. Never- 
theless, the twelve good men, and true,^ promptly 
returned a verdict of acquittal, and the moment 
the foreman announced this result the audience 
leaped to its feet and burst into a storm of cheer- 
ing which De Lancey was powerless to suppress. 
Again and again he attempted to restore order, 
but one of the popular leaders practically defied 

* Several well-known New York families were evidently 
represented on this jury, which included such names as 
Rutgers, Holmes, Man, Bell, Keteltas, Hildreth, and Goelet. 

4 [47] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

his authority, and with renewed cheers the ex- 
ultant victors poured into Wall Street, where a 
roaring crowd instantly surrounded Hamilton and 
attempted to carry him oflp in triumph on its 
shoulders. That night the whole city was ablaze 
with enthusiasm, a grand banquet was given in 
Hamilton's honor, and all the popular leaders 
were cheered to the echo. Indeed, the public re- 
joicing continued throughout the following day, 
and when the successful advocate started for 
Philadelphia an enormous throng accompanied 
him to his barge, and his departure was honored 
by a salute of cannon. Nor was this the end, for 
some weeks later the Common Council awarded 
him the Freedom of the City in recognition of his 
disinterested services to the people, and the ad- 
dress conferring this distinction was conveyed to 
him ^ in a gold box ornamented with the arms of 
the city. Thus ended an event which has been 
called "the dawn of American liberty,'* and 
many of the scenes which Wall Street witnessed 
in later years can be clearly traced to the in- 
fluence of this cause celehre. 

Indeed, from 1734 to 1770 the history of the 

* By Alderman Stephen Bayard. 
[48] 



PI 







CITY HALL, WALL STREET, AUGUST 4, T735 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

city is a record of constant collisions between 
the popular party and the royal Executive, and 
he was a strong man, indeed, who more than held 
his own. Governor Clarke proved unequal to 
the task, Clinton fought fiercely for ten years and 
then retired exhausted, Osborne killed himself 
on the eve of conflict. Sir Charles Hardy virtu- 
ally surrendered all authority into the hands of 
Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey, Major-General 
Monckton practically abdicated in favor of Cad- 
wallader Colden, and Sir Henry Moore was far 
from being the ruling power. Thus, in thirty-six 
years, the representative of the King was trans- 
formed from an autocrat into a figure-head, and 
further changes were already in prospect. 



X 

THE STAMP-ACT CONGRESS 

MEANWHILE Wall Street, which had ac- 
. claimed the gorgeous inaugural processions 
of the incoming governors and speeded most of 
the retiring officials with jeers, had been altering 
its appearance for the better by abolishing the old 
slave market, which vanished in 1762, and in the 
same year street lamps were introduced. These 
public betterments were soon followed by the 
complete renovation of the City Hall and the re- 
moval of the whipping-post, pillory, stocks, and 
cage, and with its house thus put in order, Wall 
Street welcomed the first and perhaps the most 
notable popular assemblage recorded in the his- 
tory of the United States. 

It was with no blare of trumpets or any offi- 
cial ceremonies that this distinguished company 
convened in the City Hall on October 7, 1765; 
but on that day and in that building the Amer- 

[50] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

lean Revolution may fairly be said to have start- 
ed, for the Stamp-Act Congress was the first 
representative body organized for the common 
protection of all the colonies against the mother- 
country, and in it the Continental Congress was 
plainly foreshadowed. No fewer than nine colo- 
nies were represented, and among the delegates 
who journeyed to Wall Street were Robert and 
Philip Livingston, James Otis, William Samuel 
Johnson, John Rutledge, Thomas McKean, and 
others,^ whose names were to become household 
words and whose deeds were to enroll them 
among the founders of the nation. These men 
of unsuspected powers conducted their proceed- 
ings behind closed doors, but during their de- 
liberations, which lasted three weeks, the in- 
terest of the whole country was centred on the 
narrow highway, and the address to the King 
and the memorials to the Houses of Parliament — 
the first of those remarkable state papers which 
won the admiration of Europe — ^were composed 
almost within shadow of Trinity Church. 

' A full list of the delegates is to be found in the New York 
Weekly Gazette and Mercury, issue of October 14, 1765. 



XI 

THE PRELUDE TO THE REVOLUTION 

THE Stamp-Act Congress was still in session 
when the first ship bearing the obnoxious 
stamps arrived in the harbor, and from that 
moment the calm dehberations of the visiting 
statesmen ceased to interest the excited city. Ac- 
tion and not argument now seemed imperative, 
and for several days turbulent crowds thronged 
the streets, and notices advocating violence were 
posted at every public meeting- place. Finally 
on the evening of November 1st the storm broke, 
and the residents of Wall Street, aroused by the 
sound of a tumult in the direction of the Fields,' 
rushed from their houses and then hastily re- 
treated to bar their doors against the strangest 
mob which ever invaded a peaceful thoroughfare. 
Down Pearl (Queen) Street a torchlight pro- 
cession was advancing with shouts and shots 

^ Now the City Hall Park. 
[52] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



and other alarming demonstrations, and at its 
head rumbled a gallows on wheels bearing an 
effigy of Lieutenant-Governor Golden, followed 
by another similar figure carried in a chair on 
the head of a stalwart negro. Hooting, jeer- 
ing, and occasionally shooting at these effigies, 
several hundred sailors and rough, water -side 
characters bearing torches and lanterns swung 
into Wall Street, and on their heels followed a 
great throng of boisterous men. Suddenly, to 
the dismay of the householders anxiously watch- 
ing the wild scene from behind their shuttered 
windows, the paraders halted before the house 
of one James McEvers, but their leaders im- 
mediately called for three cheers for this gentle- 
man, who, through prudence or patriotism, had 
resigned his position as Stamp Distributor, and, 
the crowd, responding with an approving roar 
and a flourish of lanterns and torches, swept on 
toward the City Hall.* Brief as this delay was 
it had enabled the panic-stricken authorities to 
organize some slight resistance, and by the time 
the mob reached Broad Street its progress was 

* New York Weekly Gazette and Mercury, and The Weekly 
Post Boy, November 7, 1765. 

[53] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

opposed by the Mayor, Aldermen/ and a squad 
of constables, who boldly attacked the bearers 
of the effigies and actually succeeded in tumbling 
their burdens into the street. Surprised by this 
vigorous assault, the rioters halted in confusion, 
but the moment they perceived that only a hand- 
ful of men stood before them they pressed for- 
ward, carrying the officials off their feet, and 
in another moment they had gained the City 
Hall and were swarming up the narrow incline 
leading past the Presbyterian Church to Trinity. 
Here the leaders swung to the left, and with an 
exultant roar the mob followed, heading straight 
for Fort George, where the hated stamps had been 
deposited, and in a few minutes it was massed 
before the entrance clamoring for admission. 
No response being given to this angry demonstra- 
tion, some of the more adventurous spirits broke 
into the Lieutenant-Governor's carriage-house, 
and, seizing one of the coaches, bundled the 
effigies into it and dragged it off in triumph, 
the others following with shouts of exultation. 

» Among these bold officials were Nicholas Roosevelt and 
Cornelius Roosevelt, representing the West and the Out 
Wards of the city. 

[54] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Again Wall Street was invaded, but this time 
the crowd assembled at the Merchants' Coffee- 
house, received the crude pageant with cheers as 
it passed on to the Fields, where a junction was 
formed with another mob and the whole force 
headed for the Battery. Once more a half- 
hearted attempt was made to gain admittance to 
the fort, but after hammering on the gate with 
their cudgels the ringleaders turned their at- 
tention to the coach-house, and, dragging out 
the Lieutenant-Governor's sleighs and carriages, 
heaped them together on Bowling Green, threw 
the effigies on top, and quickly turned the whole 
mass into a roaring bonfire, around which hun- 
dreds of men capered in a wild and sinister 
dance. 

Thus ended this night of terror, but for the 
next two days the city remained in comparative 
quiet. Then anonymous placards and notices 
began to reappear, warning the authorities of 
further trouble if the stamps were not surren- 
dered, and hasty conferences were held between 
the Mayor, the acting Governor and the leading 
citizens to concert measures for maintaining or- 
der. At first Golden was for meeting force with 

[55] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

force; but finding little support for this policy, 
he finally compromised by sanctioning a semi- 
official promise that no use should be made of 
the stamps until further orders from England. 
But the "Sons of Liberty," who had undoubt- 
edly organized the hostile demonstrations, were 
in no mood to accept such empty concessions 
and the only response to the Governor's 
proclamation was a notice calling another 
meeting in the Fields for the night of Novem- 
ber 5th. 

At this juncture the City Magistrates hurried- 
ly convened in the City Hall, and an enormous 
throng gathered outside the building to learn the 
result of their deliberations. Finally a committee 
was appointed to urge that the stamps be sur- 
rendered into the custody of the local authori- 
ties, and the moment the men intrusted with this 
mission appeared on the street the crowd closed 
in and escorted them to the threshold of Fort 
George, where they halted in a silent but menac- 
ing mass. Very little would have suflSced at that 
critical moment to precipitate a violent conflict. 
Behind the feeble ramparts were gathered a few 
hundred armed but not over-reliable troops, and 

[56] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

facing them an overwhelming army of determined 
and not too orderly citizens. Had either side 
provoked the other, or even had the parley be- 
tween the Executive and the committee been 
unduly prolonged, the first bloodshed in the cause 
of independence would undoubtedly have oc- 
curred near Bowling Green. It was not long, 
however, before the committee reappeared and an- 
nounced, amid a scene of wild rejoicing, that the 
acting Governor had yielded and would surren- 
der the stamps to the Mayor. Welcome as this 
news was the crowd did not disperse, but hung 
about the Fort waiting the fulfilment of the of- 
ficial promise, and before long the gates opened 
and a strong guard marched out escorting the 
hated documents. 

Then followed a triumphant return to Wall 
Street, the victorious populace surrounding the 
bearers of the captured papers, and accompany- 
ing them to the very steps of the City Hall, where 
the Mayor receipted for them, their surrender 
being the signal for an outburst which recalled 
the demonstrations accorded Hamilton's first vic- 
tory for the people on the same spot thirty years 
before. 

[57] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



Some four months later the Stamp Act was re- 
pealed, largely through the efforts of William Pitt, 
in whose honor a marble statue was erected in 
Wall Street, which was rapidly becoming the 
centre of fashion and was soon to be the scene 
of many memorable events in the founding of 
the nation. 




bird's-eye view of wall street about 1774 



XII 

PAUL REVERE AND COMING EVENTS 

A TRAVEL-STAINED horseman journeying 
. down Broadway on Tuesday, May 17, 1774, 
turned his jaded mount to the left on reaching 
Trinity Church and passed into Wall Street un- 
recognized and scarcely noticed. The man was 
evidently a stranger, but cosmopolitan New York, 
with a population of nearly twenty-five thousand, 
was accustomed to the presence of visitor's, and 
there was nothing in the appearance of this one 
to attract attention beyond the fact that his 
clothes, saddle-bags, and horse were encrusted 
with mud, and that his tired animal suggested a 
long trip over difficult country. The rider him- 
self, scarcely less exhausted than his horse, was a 
sturdily built fellow about forty years of age, with 
a clean-shaven, rather commonplace face, and 
the undistinguished bearing of a farmer or petty 
merchant. Certainly no one would have sup- 
[59] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

posed him to be a man of artistic temperament or 
heroic mould, and yet he was an artist of no mean 
caHber, and his crudest sketches were destined 
to be cherished by future generations of hero- 
worshippers, for within a year he was to win un- 
dying fame and provide a stirring theme for song 
and story. Wall Street, however, saw no shadow 
of the coming event, and Paul Revere, illustrator 
and engraver, dentist, merchant, goldsmith, sol- 
dier, and "Constitutional Post-rider," passed 
quietly on his way, staring curiously at the busy 
scene unfolded to his gaze. 

There must have been much that was strange 
and diverting to the provincial in the passing 
throngs — the venders of tea-water from the pump 
near the Collect pond, with their crude hogsheads 
carried in carts or set on wheels, the clumsy 
travelling coaches, the sedan-chairs, the gorgeous- 
ly uniformed officers and officials, the groups of 
sombrely attired merchants — all the life and move- 
ment of the bustling commercial and official cen- 
tre must have afforded a novel contrast to quiet 
Boston, with her port practically closed and her 
commerce almost dead. Yet, unfamiliar as his 

surroundings were, this was not Revere's first 

[60] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

visit to New York. Less than six months before 
he had carried the news of the Boston Tea-party 
to the local Sons of Liberty, but their headquar- 
ters were then near the Fields/ and this was 
possibly his first view of the street which was 
now almost without a rival in the fashionable 
quarter of the town. 

Before him stretched a neat and attractive 
thoroughfare lined with stately shade-trees and 
handsome houses, whose dignified appearance 
demonstrated that their owners were men of sub- 
stance, if not of fashion. At his left the Presby- 
terian Church still maintained its commanding 
position, and just beyond it lay the reconstructed 
City Hall, its upper stories, supported by arches, 
forming an arcade through which the pedestrians 
passed; but the hideous sugar refinery which had 
disfigured the neighborhood for many years had 
at last disappeared, and the Verplanck mansion 
and other handsome private dwellings now oc- 
cupied its site. Beyond these on the same side 
of the street lay the McEvers mansion, before 
which the Stamp-tax rioters had paused in their 
wild march some nine years earlier, and in front 

» Present City Hall Park. 
[6i] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

of which now stood Pitt's marble statue, the 
work of Wilton, a famous sculptor, while in its 
immediate vicinity ranged the comfortable res- 
idences of the Thurmans, Banckers, Ludlows, 
Startins, Winthrops, Whites, Jaunceys, and other 
citizens of credit and more or less renown. 

Riding by these attractive, home-like houses. 
Revere must have passed that of his friend and 
correspondent John Lamb,^ one of the most ac- 
tive members in the Sons of Liberty, whose cease- 
less agitation of popular rights had for some 
years been forcing the hands alike of friends 
and foes. Indeed, if any one individual could 
have been held accountable for the exciting scenes 
which Wall Street had recently experienced, the 
responsibility would probably have been laid at 
Lamb's well-appointed door. In fact, on the 
very day when Revere and his fellow-masquerad- 
ers were destroying the cargoes of the East India 
Company in Boston Harbor, John Lamb was 
rousing the merchants of New York to similar 
violence in the City Hall; and had a tea ship ar- 

* Griswold, in his American Court, claims that Whigs like 
Lamb obtained no foothold in Wall Street till after the Rev- 
olution, but there is evidence that Lamb was an exception 
to this rule. 

[62] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

rived in the port at that juncture there is no doubt 
that his Wall Street audience would have quickly- 
organized a Tea-party without paint or feathers. 
Fortunately or unfortunately, however, no vessel 
had appeared at that crisis; but about four months 
later, when the London sailed into the harbor, a 
Vigilance Committee promptly boarded her with- 
out the least effort at disguise and bundled her 
objectionable merchandise into the sea. This 
had occurred on Friday, April 22, 1774, and the 
very next day Wall Street witnessed an exhibition 
of the popular temper as unique as it was sig- 
nificant. 

About the same time that the London came to 
anchor in the lower bay another vessel known as 
the Isfancy arrived with a cargo of tea, imported 
expressly for the purpose of testing the strength 
of the non - importation agreement. Her com- 
mander. Captain Lockyer, made no secret of his 
mission, and the Vigilance Committee finally per- 
mitted him to visit the city for the purpose of con- 
sulting his consignees; but when those gentlemen 
prudently refused to receive his cargo the worthy 
captain was ordered to sail for England at the 

earliest possible moment, 
s [63] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Meanwhile notices had been posted through- 
out the city, summoning all friends of the country 
to assemble on Murray's Wharf, at the foot of 
Wall Street, on the day of Lockyer's departure, 
and give him a send-off which he would be likely 
to remember and report to his friends across the 
sea. Accordingly, at eight o'clock on Saturday 
morning, April 23d, bells began ringing all over 
the city, more and more joining in the chorus, 
until every clapper in town was swinging save 
those of the loyal City Hall and King's College, 
and at this prearranged signal all sorts and condi- 
tions of men began streaming toward the rendez- 
vous, some of them accompanied by brass-bands, 
and all the shipping on the river-front displayed 
its brishtest buntinjr. For an hour the crowds 
continued to pour into Wall Street, massing 
in front of the Merchants' Coffee - house, on 
the southeast corner of Wall and Water streets, 
where the offending mariner had taken up his 
abode, and the moment he showed himself on 
the balcony in the custody of a committee of 
citizens a deafening roar of cheers and a bedlam 
of bells greeted his appearance. No disorder of 
any sort was attempted, however, and when quiet 
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THE STORY OF A STREET 

was restored the committee solemnly introduced 
their victim to the crowd and signalled the bands, 
which burst into "God Save the King." During 
this demonstration of loyalty the captain was 
escorted with great ceremony into the street, 
where a lane was forced for him through the 
cheering multitude to the wharf, from which he 
boarded a pilot - boat, accompanied by a depu- 
tation charged with the duty of seeing him safely 
off Sandy Hook, and amid the booming of can- 
non and other wild demonstrations of rejoicing he 
sailed away to carry the news of his significant 
reception to ears that would not hear. 



XIII 

THE merchants' COFFEE-HOUSE 

THESE events must have been known to Paul 
Revere, and possibly they were in his mind 
as he jogged through Wall Street/ for he was the 
accredited messenger not only of the Sons of 
Liberty, but also of the Committee of Corre- 
spondence, and it was at their unofficial head- 
quarters, the Merchants' Coffee - house, that he 
undoubtedly alighted. 

Of all the historic buildings which figure in 
Wall Street's story, this unpretentious tavern is 
fairly entitled to a place apart. Erected about 
1740,^ on what was then practically the water's 

* The exact route followed by Revere cannot now be 
positively identified. He left Boston May 14, 1774; was 
almost three days on the road; entered the city by the 
Bowery, or Boston Post Road, and his despatch was for 
the Committee of Correspondence, some of whose members 
were usually to be found at the Merchants' Coffee-house. 

^ The first reference to this historic building appears to 
be in the Weekly Post-Boy, January 16, 1744 (No. 52, p. 

[66] 



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THE STORY OF A STREET 

edge, at a time when privateersmen and other 
adventurous sons of the sea frequented the port 
to compare notes and transact business of a kind 
best consummated over a glass of grog, behind 
v^'^alls devoid of ears, it had immediately become 
a sort of maritime exchange whose secrets never 
leaked and whose rear doors were exceedingly 
convenient for customers who preferred to be 
within hail of their small boats. With the pass- 
ing of the privateersmen and other less admirable 
water-side characters, however, it gradually de- 
veloped from a sailors' snug harbor into a place 
of general resort whose patrons were so fastidious 
that the adjoining slave market had to be re- 
moved for their benefit,^ and from that time on- 
ward its popularity steadily increased, until its 
guests included all the best people in the com- 
munity and its influence was that of a civic forum. 



4), where it is mentioned in an advertisement dated No- 
vember, 1743. 

' "Said Meal (Slave) Markett greatly Obstructs the 
agreeable prospect of the East River which those that live 
in Wall St. would Otherwise enjoy; that it Occasions a 
Dirty Street Offensive to the Inhabitants on each side and 
Disagreeable to those that pass and Repass to and from 
the Coffee House a place of Great Resort." — Minutes of 
Common Council, vol. vi., p. 283. New York City Hall. 

[67] 



THE STORY OF A SIREET 

There was nothing imposing either in the ex- 
terior or the interior of this celebrated inn. All 
that is known of its outward appearance is that 
it was a three-storied structure, with a large room 
on the first floor, another on the second, a piazza 
or balcony on the front, and a platform or porch 
on the side, and its interior appointments were 
in keeping with this very modest architectural 
plan. The two "long rooms," however, wit- 
nessed many a famous meeting and consultation, 
and their part in the prelude to the Revolution 
was of the first importance. Here it was that the 
demonstrations against the military occupation 
and rule of Boston had taken place in 1769; here 
some of the most interesting conferences of the 
Friends of Liberty and Trade were held; here 
Isaac Sears and other radicals urged the seiz- 
ure of the stamps; here Lockyer was accorded 
his mock reception ; here began the demon- 
stration against the closing of the port of Bos- 
ton, which ended in the burning of Lord North 
in effigy before a crowded balcony ; here all 
the political leaders foregathered ; and here, 
on May 17, 1774, Paul Revere arrived with 
his despatch to the Committee of Correspond- 

[68] 



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THE STORY OF A STREET 

ence, just reorganized into the Committee of 
Fifty. 

On its face the message which Revere dehvered 
at this famous tavern was not of extraordinary 
interest, for it merely reported the resolutions 
adopted at Faneuil Hall, requesting New York's 
co-operation in suspending trade with England 
until the ministry should reopen the port of 
Boston; but the reply to this communication was 
epoch-making, for it undoubtedly gave the first 
impulse to the founding of a national govern- 
ment. 

Before the famous post-rider was fairly on the 
road again, headed for Philadelphia,^ a meeting 
of merchants and other citizens was called at 
the Coffee-house to nominate a committee to re- 
spond to the proposals contained in his despatch, 
and the existing Committee of Fifty was reap- 
pointed with one addi ional member. Of the 
assemblage gathered on this occasion Gouverneur 
Morris wrote: "I stood on the balcony [of the 
Coffee-house], and on my right hand were ranged 
all the people of property, with some poor de- 
pendents, and on the other all the tradesmen, etc., 

' May 19, 1774. 
[69] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

who thought it worth their while to leave their 
daily labor for the good of the country." It is 
characteristic of the man that Morris, then in his 
twenty-third year, should have made himself the 
centre of this eventful scene, but he was un- 
doubtedly a leader, for in New York, as in other 
States, the Revolution was the work of youth 
tempered by almost precocious maturity of judg- 
ment. Among those who, with Morris, were 
moulding history in Wall Street at this critical 
period were John Jay, aged twenty-eight; Alex- 
ander Hamilton, seventeen; Robert Livingston, 
twenty-seven; Marinus Willett, thirty-three; Alex- 
ander McDougall, forty-three; Isaac Low, thirty- 
nine; and Isaac Sears, the fire-eating veteran, 
forty-five. Some of these men were on the com- 
mittee intrusted with the duty of answering the 
Massachusetts proposals, and it is doubtful if any 
other body of citizens ever afforded as rare a 
combination of youth and intellectual maturity- 
There were, of course, a few hot-heads among 
them, and Alexander McDougall, disgusted with 
his associates' conservatism, angrily withdrew and 
attempted to force their hands. In this he was 
not successful, but the response which was final- 

[70] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ly adopted by the majority on May 23, 1774, was 
certainly not the utterance of timorous senihty. 
Indeed, it was nothing less than the first proposal 
for a convention of delegates from all the colonies, 
and when Paul Revere received it on his return 
from Philadelphia, Wall Street had won historic 
honors; for of this paper formulated in her fa- 
mous Coffee-house came the Continental Con- 
gress. 



XIV 

THE REVOLUTION AT WALL STREET's DOORS 

LESS than one year ^ later Israel Bessel, an- 
j other post-rider, came spurring into the 
Bowery Road from Boston, breaking the quiet 
of a Sabbath morning by roaring startHng news 
at every passing group of citizens; and as the 
congregations of Trinity and the Presbyterian 
church issued from their noonday services he 
burst upon them with tidings that the battle of 
Lexington had been fought and won four days 
before. In an instant he was surrounded by an 
anxious throng eagerly clamoring for details, and 
Wall Street was soon in a state of wild commotion, 
loyalists and patriots scattering to protect their 
families and property, each man suspecting and 
fearing the other, and all almost equally dismayed 
by the news. The patriots were the first to re- 
cover from the shock, however, and, headed by 

1 April 23, 1775. 
[72] 




WALL STREET, SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1775 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Isaac Sears and some of the boldest Sons of 
Liberty, a band of citizens hastily assembled, and, 
taking possession of the City Hall, seized five 
hundred stand of arms deposited there for the 
troops, demanded and received the keys of the 
Custom-house, closed the building, and virtually 
deposed the royal government. 

From that moment all business was suspend- 
ed in the city, and between April 24 and May 
I, 1775, confusion reigned supreme. Then the 
ablest men in the community assumed control, 
and calling; a mass-meeting at the Merchants' 
Coffee-house, which had practically become the 
seat of government, organized a provisional Com- 
mittee of One Hundred to administer the public 
business. By the orders of this committee the 
city was virtually placed under martial law, the 
shops and factories were closed, the streets were 
patrolled by improvised bands of militia, all avail- 
able arms and ammunition were seized, crude 
preparations were made for resisting an attack, 
and many timorous loyalists abandoned their 
houses and sought safety at their country-seats. 
Meanwhile some of the King's troops had been 
allowed to enter the city, the loyalist members of 
[73] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the committee feeling that their presence would 
insure order, but when they made an attempt to 
appropriate the spare arms deposited in their 
barracks, Marinus Willett forced an armed guard 
to surrender this booty, and the carts containing 
the weapons were triumphantly escorted by a 
great throng of citizens up Broadway, past the 
head of Wall Street, to Abraham Van Dyck's 
ball alley at John Street, where they were placed 
under lock and key. 

Up to this time the leading patriots and loy- 
alists of the city had worked together for the 
maintenance of order, but anything more than a 
temporary truce was impossible, and before long 
the Committee of One Hundred was split into 
warring factions and party feeling began to run 
high. Numerically the patriots were in a vast 
majority, but many men of property and in- 
fluence were loud in their expressions of loyalty 
and bitter in their denunciations of the pro- 
visional government, whose legality they stoutly 
denied. Under such circumstances more or less 
disorder was inevitable, and residence in the city 
w^as made extremely uncomfortable for many of 
the outspoken loyalists. Indeed, some of the 

[ 74 ] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

more obnoxious were stripped to the skin and 
ridden on rails through Wall Street, greatly to 
the scandal of the highly respectable denizens 
of that most decorous neighborhood. 

Such was the condition of affairs in April, 
1776, when Washington arrived to oppose the 
British forces dislodged from Boston, and under 
his energetic leadership the active preparations 
for defence which had already been begun were 
pushed, until the whole appearance of the town 
was practically transformed. Fortifications were 
hastily erected on the water-front; batteries were 
planted at various posts of vantage; breastworks 
and barricades were thrown across the streets; 
bullets were cast out of lead taken from the roofs 
of the houses; and some of the buildings were 
loop-holed for street fighting and a house-to- 
house resistance. Of these crude defences Wall 
Street boasted a battery masked in the cellar 
of a house on the East River, a breastwork near 
the Coffee-house, and McDougall's battery, 
stationed a little to the west of Trinity, which 
continued to conduct its services as though noth- 
ing whatever had happened. Indeed, the clergy 
and congregation of that church did not seem 
[75] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

to realize that the Revolution was a fact even 
w^hen Washington arrived upon the scene, but 
within a few weeks the war was brought home to 
them in most extraordinary fashion. 

The Reverend Charles Inglis was then assist- 
ant rector of the parish, and Washington had not 
been long in the city before an officious member 
of his staff called upon the clergyman and re- 
quested him to omit the customary prayers for 
the King, which had been loyally read at all 
services without the least regard for the existing 
political conditions. But Mr. Inglis, though a 
non-combatant, was evidently a believer in the 
Church militant and a most ardent supporter of 
the crown, for he promptly refused the request, 
which Washington disavowed as soon as it was 
brought to his attention. Certainly the King 
never so needed the prayers of his faithful sub- 
jects as he did at that moment, when peace 
negotiations were impending, but this was not 
the popular view. Nevertheless, the services were 
conducted for some weeks without alteration or 
interruption, while the contending forces pre- 
pared for what promised to be the bitterest strug- 
gle of the war. 

[76] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

One Sunday morning in May, however, a 
motlev crew of about one hundred and fifty armed 
men, preceded by a fife and drum corps, invaded 
Wall Street and headed straight for Trinity. 
\^ hether they were soldiers or not is uncertain, 
but they carried ba}onets on their guns and were 
apparently under some sort of militar)- control. 
Marching to the brisk tap of drums, they passed 
through the street, crossed Broadway, entered the 
church, and swept up the aisle, drums beating 
and fifes shrilling in deafening uproar. Appalled 
by this desecrating intrusion, the congregation 
sat aghast, not knowing what to expect; but the 
white-robed clerg}man calmly stood his ground, 
confronted the invaders, and outfaced them. In- 
deed, the moment the drums and fifes ceased he 
proceeded with the senices as though nothing 
had happened, and conducting it with admirable 
dignitv to the ver\' end without the omission of a 
single word, drove the armed rabble into igno- 
minious retreat. 

This was the last, or one of the last, ser\*ices 
ever held in the church, however, for its au- 
thorities soon thought best to close its doors, 
and within four months it was totally destroyed 
[77] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

by fire. Meanwhile Wall Street listened to the 
Declaration of Independence, which was read 
from the steps of the City Hall on July i6, 1776, 
to a small band of patriots whose enthusiasm 
prompted them to invade the court-room and tear 
down the royal coat of arms, which they then 
proceeded to burn on the spot where Zenger's 
'Journal had been consigned to the flames, thus 
affording a precedent for wanton destruction that 
was to cost the city dear before many months had 
passed. In fact, when the British troops en- 
tered the town two months later they looted the 
City Hall library without mercy, bartering the 
valuable books for drink, and completely scatter- 
ing what would now be a unique collection. The 
statue of Pitt was also wrecked almost beyond 
recognition, but there were few who regretted its 
fate, for Pitt had ahenated many Americans by 
his apparent hostility to their independence, and 
the statue had already been somewhat defaced 
before the loyalists completed the work of de- 
struction. 

With these acts of vandalism Wall Street began 
a long and bitter experience. Indeed, before the 
British troops had fairly established themselves 
[78] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

in New York the great fire of September 21, 
1776, which obHterated a large part of the city, 
laid Trinity in ruins, and this disaster, wrongly 
attributed to rebel sympathizers, resulted in such 
harsh measures against the American residents 
that many of them fled, abandoning their houses 
to the enemy. 



XV 



OCCUPATION AND EVACUATION 

IT did not take long for the army of occupation 
to appropriate all the available property in 
the street to its own purposes. The City Hall 
was immediately transformed into a guard-house 
and prison, and fortunate indeed were those who 
were incarcerated there, for they received humane 
treatment and escaped the horrors which were 
daily enacted in the sugar-houses and hulks where 
the majority of American prisoners were con- 
lined. One of the earliest mmates of this Wall 
Street prison was General Charles Lee, and it 
would have been well for him had he been de- 
tained there until the end of the war. He was, 
however, soon set at liberty, and his subsequent 
conduct not only led to his disgrace, but came 
perilously close to wrecking the American cause. 
Another famous Wall Street building was like- 
wise utilized for the purposes of the army, for 

[So] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the Presbyterian Church was pressed into ser- 
vice as a hospital for the British sick and 
wounded, and to adapt it to this use it was 
practically dismantled. These changes, however, 
merely marked the beginning of the end, for every 
house vacated by the Americans was immediately 
placed at the disposal of a British general or 
official; and so great was the demand for resi- 
dential property for the housing of these gentle- 
men that the dwellings of all rebels were marked 
with a broad R to subject them to confiscation. 

Wall Street thus practically became the head- 
quarters of the army of occupation, and the en- 
tire neighborhood assumed a military air. Gen- 
eral Knyphausen, the German commander of the 
Hessians, took possession of the McEvers man- 
sion; General Robertson, the Royal Governor, 
established himself in the Verplanck mansion, 
between William and Nassau streets,^ and this 
same dwelling also sheltered Benedict Arnold for 
a short time after he turned traitor. General 
Riedesel, the Hessian, was another commander 
who resided in the once fashionable highway, 
and the famous Coffee-house quickly became the 

' Almost on the site of the present Assay Office. 
fSi J 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

favorite resort of all the army and navy officers 
quartered in the town. 

Under these conditions the whole aspect of the 
street gradually changed, its buildings steadily 
deteriorated, and before long very little remained 
of its former glory. In the summer of 1779 a 
feeble attempt was made to turn the grounds sur- 
rounding the blackened ruins of Trinity into a 
place of fashionable promenade, and with this 
idea they were enclosed with wooden railings 
painted green, lamps were hung in the trees, 
under which benches were placed, and concerts 
were given by the garrison bands, to which only 
people of quality were admitted. This was the 
only effort, however, which was made to restore 
Wall Street's prestige, and the following winter 
destroyed its last claim to beauty; for during the 
unprecedentedly cold weather which permitted 
the transport of cannon to Staten Island over the 
ice-covered bay, almost all its stately shade-trees 
were sacrificed to provide fuel for the families 
of Generals Knyphausen, Riedesel, and other 
officers. From this time onward desolation and 
decay marked the highway for their own, and as 

the war drew to a close its condition passed from 

[82] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

bad to worse; for the British naturally took no 
pains to preserve property which they were soon 
to restore to its former owners, and dirt and 
debris were allowed to accumulate, until every 
street was a rubbish - heap lined with wrecked, 
dismantled, or dilapidated buildings. 

Such was the condition of Wall Street on 
November 25, 1783, when Brigadier-General 
Henry Jackson, in command of about eight hun- 
dred men, stationed at McGowan's Pass, set his 
troops in motion for the Collect, or Fresh Water 
Pond, on the outskirts of the town, where he 
halted about noon under the orders of General 
Henry Knox, deputed by Washington to take 
possession of New York. At the same hour the 
rear guard of the British army of 6500 was 
marching down Broadway to embark for Staten 
Island, their brilliant uniforms and perfect equip- 
ment affording a brave sight for all beholders, 
and a little later in the afternoon one of Sir Guy 
Carleton's staff reported to the American com- 
mander that the last of his troops were on the 
transports at the Battery. This was the word 
which General Knox had been eagerly awaiting, 
and within a few minutes of its receipt the Amer- 
[83] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ican column, composed of detachments of Massa- 
chusetts infantry. New York artillery, a militia 
company, and a troop of horse under Captain 
Stakes, was swinging toward the heart of the city. 
Down the Bowery road they swept with the stride 
of seasoned veterans, their motley uniforms in- 
crusted with mud and showing signs of rough 
campaigning, their tarnished arms and torn col- 
ors presenting a sharp contrast to the display 
of the evacuating host. There was every evi- 
dence of discipline and training, however, in the 
movements and carriage of these weather-beaten 
soldiers, and as they passed through Chatham 
Square to Pearl (Queen) Street great crowds of 
enthusiastic citizens welcomed them with cheers, 
and falling in on either side of the conquering 
column, accompanied its march. 

Then came the great moment for which Wall 
Street had waited and suffered for over seven 
years, and up the devastated highway, thronged 
with a joyous multitude, swung the tattered but 
stalwart ranks to the business-like tap of drums 
and the music of exultant cheers. Onward they 
swept, past the headless statue of Pitt; past shab- 
by dwellings, which their exiled owners would 
[84] 



New- York, Nov. 

The Committee appointed to conduft the Order of re- 
ceiving their Excellencies Governor Clinton and 
Generah Washington, 

T) EG Leave to inform their Fellow-Citizens, that the 
-L' Troops, under the Command of Major-Gener?! 

Knox, will take PoircfTion of the City at the Hour agreed 
on, Tuefday next ; as foon as this may be performed, 
he will requeft the Citizens who may be afTembled on 
Horfcback, at the Bowling-Green, the lower End of the 
Broad- Way, to accompany him to meet their Excellencies 
GovernorCLiNTON and General WAsHiNGT0N,at theBull's 
Head,.in the Bowery— the Citizens on Foot toaflemble 
at or near the Tea- water- Pump at Frefh-water. 

ORDER OF PROCESSION. 

A Party of Ilorfe will precede their Excellencies and 
be on their Hanks— after the General and Governor, will i 
follow the Lieutenant-Governor and Members of the 
Council for the temporary Government of the Southern 
Parts of the State — The Gentlemen on Horfe-back, eight 
in Front— thofe on Foot, in the Rear of the Horfc, in like 
Manner. Their Excellencies, after palTitig down Queen- 
Strcei, and the Line of Troops up the Broadway, will 
a-light at Cape's Tavern. 

The Committee hope to fee their Fellow-Citizens, con- 
diiiff rhcmielves with Decency and Decorum on this joy- 
ful Occalion. 



CITIZENS TAKE CAREI.'l 

Til E Inhibitants are hereby informed, th.U Permiirion has been 
i-vbt.iincd Iron, (he Ciimmandaiit, to form themfclves in patroles 
this iiight, and that every order requifite will be given to the guards, 
a? well to aid and afTift, .i> to i;ivc prate^ion to the patroles: And 
that the counterfign will be giv«n to Thomas Tucker No. <i 
Vv'atcr Street ■, from whotrv it can he obtained, if neceifary. 



BROADSIDE .A.NNOUNCING WASHINGTON'S ENTRY INTO 

NEW YORK 

(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

scarcely have recognized; past the head of Broad 
Street, where the whipping-post had stood; past 
the dilapidated City Hall, where the Stamp Act 
Congress had assembled; up the slight incline, 
down which many a royal governor had paraded 
and along which countless throngs jostle and hurry 
to-day; past the dismantled Presbyterian Church, 
where Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards had 
preached, to the mournful ruins of Trinity. Then, 
wheeling to the right, these representatives of the 
victorious armies lined up in Broadway near 
Cape's Tavern,* bravely displaying the arms of 
New York State upon its sign, and on that his- 
toric spot, where Etienne De Lancey had built his 
home, they halted and stood at parade-rest till 
a salute of thirteen guns announced that the 
American flag floated over Fort George and that 
the Revolution was ended. 

On the evening of that day of days Washington 
attended a banquet in Wall Street. Its golden 
age was dawning. 

1 About 115 Broadway. 



XVI 

WALL STREET THE CENTRE OF GOVERNMENT 

WITH the last exultant echo of Evacuation 
Day Wall Street relapsed into the lethargy 
which had long pervaded the entire community. 
Many American cities had endured grievous hard- 
ships during the war; a few had been pillaged 
and partially burned; more than one had been 
practically obliterated; but for seven years New 
York had been remorselessly exploited to the 
point of exhaustion. Indeed, the city which the 
British abandoned in the fall of 1783 bore very 
little resemblance to the social and commercial 
centre they had wrested from Washington in the 
first year of the Revolution. Much of it was in 
an indescribable state of dilapidation and decay, 
part of it was in absolute ruins, and all of it was 
fairly reeking with dirt. In fact, the whole aspect 
of the place, with its empty houses and vacant 
streets patrolled by herds of prowling hogs, sug- 

[86] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

gested a deserted village, and this is what it had 
virtually become. Of the twenty-five thousand 
inhabitants it had boasted in 1776 not more than 
twelve thousand remained at the end of the war, 
and those were by no means the flower of the 
population. Many of the best people had taken 
refuge in their country-houses at the very first 
sign of trouble; all the patriots of ability and 
character had retired with Washington's retreat- 
ing forces; most of the influential loyalists had 
anticipated the withdrawal of the royal troops, 
and between these various emigrations New 
York had lost all its leading citizens, many of 
whom had gone never to return. Certainly the 
remaining residents did not display any extraor- 
dinary energy or public spirit after the army of 
occupation departed, and for some months the 
wasted city made no effx)rt to revive its commerce 
or set its dismantled house in order. 

By February, 1784, however, a number of fa- 
miliar faces began to reappear, and early in that 
month a small group of forceful men gathered 
in John Simmons's Tavern, a little wooden build- 
ing lying at the northwest corner of Wall and 
Nassau streets, to install James Duane as first 
[87] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

American Mayor of New York. In view of the 
impoverished condition of the community this 
pubhc-spirited citizen had requested that the in- 
auguration ceremonies should be conducted with- 
out expense or display; but why Simmons's Tavern 
should have been selected for such an occasion is 
not altogether certain. It is probable, however, 
that the City Hall, which had served for so many 
years as a prison, was not yet fit for civic duty, 
and that the inn was the nearest available meet- 
ing-place; but it may well be that the popularity 
of its proprietor deprived the Merchants' Coffee- 
house of adding; this event to its lone list of 
historic honors, for John Simmons was some- 
thing of a local celebrity.^ Indeed, the fat, good- 
natured countenance of this rotund boniface was 
for many years one of the familiar sights of Wall 
Street, over which he used to preside, squatting 
on his doorstep and exchanging salutations with 
all the passers-by, and the story that part of his 
tavern had to be torn down to remove his pon- 
derous body when he died is a well-authenticated 
tradition of the times. 

' Washington attended a banquet at Simmons's Tavern 
on the evening of Evacuation Day. 

[88] 




WALL STREET IN I784 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Ilkistrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

James Duane/ who was thus unceremoniously 
invested with the chief magistracy, was a man 
of wealth and refinement, whose long and effi- 
cient public service thoroughly qualified him for 
his task; and the other officials who were sworn 
in as his associates were energetic citizens whose 
achievements were already upon record. Marinus 
Willett, who became Sheriff, was the Revolution- 
ary hero who had halted the British troops in 
Broad Street at the beginning of the war and 
prevented them from appropriating the arms of 
the local garrison. Richard Varick, who was 
appointed Recorder, had been one of Washing- 
ton's junior secretaries, and had also served 
under General Schuyler; and Daniel Phoenix, 
who undertook the office of Chamberlain, was a 
merchant whose services as a member of the Sons 
of Liberty and the Committee of One Hundred 
entitled him to a high place in the public con- 
fidence. In fact, the task of establishing order 
out of chaos could scarcely have been placed in 
stronger hands, and the whole town assumed a 

^ Duane's country - seat was at Gramercy Park, so 
named from the Krom messie (or "Crooked little knife"), 
a stream running across it. 

rsoi 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

more cheerful air as soon as the new government 
entered upon the performance of its arduous 
duties. 

Business was, of course, practically dead, but 
the Chamber of Commerce had been keeping up 
a flicker of life with its meetings at the Merchants' 
Coffee-house, and on April 13, 1784, it was duly 
incorporated by the New York Legislature, and 
immediately began systematic work for a revival 
of trade. There was one field of activity in the 
prostrate city, however, which needed no en- 
couragement, and that was litigation. Through- 
out the whole State, but particularly in the cities, 
the ownership of property was in serious dis- 
pute, and what with the conflicting colonial 
and State laws and the various confiscations, 
restorations, seizures, and claims under cover 
of military authority, no one knew what his 
rights or liabilities were, and confusion reigned 
supreme. Moreover, in the face of these legal 
tangles and complications, all the Tory advocates 
had been disbarred, and for once at least in the 
history of New York the supply of lawyers did 
not equal the demand. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTOX 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Dlustrations.) 



XVII 

HAMILTON AND THE NEW YORK BAR 

INTO this land of promise two newly fledged 
lawyers hurried in the winter of 1783, and 
among the first shingles displayed on Wall Street 
was that of Alexander Hamilton, while almost 
around the corner Aaron Burr began his brilliant 
and eventful professional career.^ Had the latter 
been less resourceful and energetic, however, he 
would not have been numbered among the ear- 
liest arrivals, for the rules governing admission 
to the bar were strict, and he had served less than 
one of the required three years' legal apprentice- 
ship. But no such obstacle could daunt a man 
of Burr's caliber, and he straightway journeyed 
to Albany and presented his case before the court 
in person. He could have completed his ap- 
prenticeship years ago, he argued, had he not 

^Hamilton's office was at No. 58 (now 33) Wall Street; 
Burr's was at No. 10 Little Queen (Cedar) Street. 

[91] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

been employed in the service of the army, and no 
rule could be intended to injure one whose only 
misfortune was having sacrificed his time, his 
constitution, and his fortune to his country. This 
appeal naturally won the court, and the rules 
having been suspended, the candidate easily pass- 
ed the required examination and hastened to 
New York, where he speedily acquired an enor- 
mous practice. Indeed, for a time Burr and 
Hamilton had few rivals in the field, but in July, 
1784, John Jay ^ returned from a successful mis- 
sion to Europe, and with his advent, which was 
marked by a public reception in Wall Street^ and 
the presentation of the freedom of the city, a 
formidable competitor for legal honors was added 
to the rapidly growing list. But although the 
roll of the bar soon included over forty practising 



* Jay's office was at No. 8 Broad Street. 

2 Other events associated with Wall Street in general and 
the City Hall in particular are the reception to Sir John 
Temple, the first Consul-General from Great Britain (Novem- 
ber 24, 1784); the appointment of Thomas Jefferson as Min- 
ister to France (March 10, 1784) ; the Remonstrance to Great 
Britain against infractions of the Treaty of Peace requiring 
the removal of garrisons and the celebration in honor of the 
first successful voyage of a trading vessel from the United 
States to China and return (May, 1785). 

[92] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

attorneys, Hamilton and Burr virtually had the 
pick and choice of business, and the judgment 
displayed by each man in exercising his pref- 
erence was exceedingly characteristic, for Burr 
never took a case unless he felt sure of winning it, 
and Hamilton would advocate any cause in which 
he thoroughly believed. In fact, he had not been 
long in practice before he risked his popularity 
and even imperilled his life by defending a rich 
Tory sued by a poor woman under the terms of 
the Trespass Act.^ This law had been passed 
for the express purpose of penalizing loyalists, 
and no better opportunity for aiding a needy 
citizen at the expense of the common enemy had 
yet occurred. Under such circumstances the de- 
fence was not only a forlorn - hope, but a most 
ungrateful task. Yet Hamilton boldly attacked 
the law, declaring that it violated the provisions 
of the treaty of peace guaranteeing protection 
to the Tories in the enjoyment of their property 
rights, and so ably did he present his case that 
he carried the day in spite of popular clamor. 
The affair was not allowed to end there, however, 
for a newspaper war ensued in which the vic- 

* This case was known as Rutgers vs. Waddington. 
[93] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

torious counsel used his pen with such effect that 
a group of his opponents conspired to challenge 
him successively until one of them should silence 
him in a duel, but the murderous plan was 
promptly exposed and abandoned. This nota- 
ble legal triumph was achieved in the Mayor's 
Court, which was then held in a small building at 
the southwest corner of Wall and Broad streets, 
and here many of New York's most famous 
lawyers received their preliminary training. The 
men with whom Wall Street thus became ac- 
quainted, besides Burr, Jay, and Hamilton, were 
James Kent, Brockholst Livingston, Morgan 
Lewis, Robert Troup, Egbert Benson, Abraham 
De Peyster, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and John 
Lawrence, some of whom were destined to be- 
come jurists of international fame. It was on 
the whole an extraordinarily youthful bar, for 
in 1784 Jay was only thirty-nine, Benson thirty- 
eight, Lewis thirty. Burr twenty-eight, Hamilton 
and Livingston twenty-seven, and Kent twenty- 
one; but some of these men had already given 
high proofs of their constructive talents, and they 
were soon engaged in re-establishing credit and 
promoting plans for civic betterment. Early in 

[94] 







OLD WATCH-HOUSE 

(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

1784 the Bank of New York was organized under 
Hamilton's guidance at the Merchants' Coffee- 
house,^ and that same historic building had the 
honor of witnessing the first practical movement 
against slavery; for there, close to the site of the 
old slave market, were held the early meetings 
of the Society for the Manumission of Slaves, 
of which Jay subsequently became the president. 

* The bank was first housed in the Walton Mansion, 
156 Queen (Pearl) Street; later at 11 Hanover Square, and 
later still at No. 48 Wall Street. 



XVIII 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

MEANWHILE, Wall Street had been grad- 
ually clearing away its seven years' ac- 
cumulation of dirt and wreckage, and by June, 
1784, the Presbyterian Church, which had been 
practically dismantled in transforming it into 
an army hospital, was sufficiently repaired to wel- 
come its returning congregation. No immediate 
effort was made, however, to rebuild Trinity, 
and for some years its melancholy ruins stared 
down a sadly dilapidated highway. Of course 
the houses which had once been its pride were 
still standing, but they had been roughly handled, 
and their owners could not afford to put them in 
proper condition; so the street remained shabby 
and neglected, and such was its condition when 
the Continental Congress announced its inten- 
tion of making its headquarters in New York. 
Here was a great opportunity for the struggling 
[96] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

city, for the presence of Congress, impotent as 
that body had become, would undoubtedly en- 
hance its importance and prestige, but the civic 
authorities were ill-prepared to take advantage of 
the opportunity. Indeed, there were no suitable 
accommodations available for the visiting legisla- 
tors, and the City Hall, which was finally placed 
at their disposal, was not much more than habi- 
table. Nevertheless, the municipality offered the 
best it had, surrendering virtually the whole 
of the renovated City Hall and removing its 
own officials and records to the building on the 
southwest corner of Wall and Broad streets, 
which housed the Mayor's Court. Thus in 1785 
all the representatives of the national as well as 
the municipal and State authority were con- 
centrated in Wall Street,^ and here daily con- 
gregated such men as John Hancock, Rufus 
King, Nathan Dane, Charles Pinckney, Richard 
Henry Lee, James Monroe, James Madison, and 
other distinguished statesmen of national repute, 
who with the lawyers and city officials in the 

^Here, on July 13, 1787, was passed the famous Ordi- 
nance of 1 7 87 which dedicated the great Northwest to free- 
dom, and virtually determined the slavery struggle which 
was even then beginning. 

[97] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

building on the opposite corner constituted the 
Wall-Street men of their day. 

The presence of the Continental Congress and 
the steady influx of visitors soon brought about 
a sharp demand for accommodations in the resi- 
dence section of the city, and, while the price of 
almost everything else was falHng, rents in Wall 
Street rose so that it was impossible to obtain 
even a very modest dwelling for less than £']0 
and taxes — an exorbitant figure in those days — 
and this naturally aflPected the price of land. Not 
many sales occurred, however, for in 1786^ the 
street experienced what was probably its first 
financial panic, and such was the stringency of 
the money - market that cash practically disap- 
peared from circulation. Indeed, credit through- 
out the whole country was almost suspended, and 
the conflicting laws of the various States dis- 
couraged business enterprise and threatened the 
complete extinction of trade. 

Such was the situation when the great struggle 

* According to a contemporary writer in the press, affairs 
in the city were generally deplorable for he bursts forth: 
" Cash — O Cash ! why hast thou deserted the standard of 
Liberty and made poverty and dissipation our distinguisliing 
characteristics?" 

[98] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

began for the formation of a permanent national 
government, and into this contest Hamilton 
plunged with the ardor of an enthusiast and all 
the unselfishness of a true patriot. There was 
much in the proposed Constitution which he did 
not approve, and his splendid legal practice could 
not be neglected without great personal sacrifice; 
but from the fall of 1786 to the summer of 1788 
he worked unremittingly with voice and pen for 
the cause of the Union, and it was during this 
critical period that he wrote and published the 
famous "Federalist" papers which so profoundly 
affected the result. No less than sixty-three of 
those eighty-five brilliant essays were written by 
Hamilton in his office, No. 33 (then 58) Wall 
Street, and had the highway no other claim to 
historic interest its association with that epoch- 
making achievement would suffice to assure it 
national fame. Despite the stupendous efforts 
of the Federal leaders, however, and the strong 
support of almost the entire city, there seemed 
very little chance that the State of New York 
would ratify the Constitution, for the country 
districts were bitterly opposed to its adoption, 
and their representatives commanded a majority 
[99] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

of the votes. Nevertheless, Hamilton continued 
to fight with unabated courage, and on July 26, 
1788, he succeeded in turning the hostile majority 
into a minority by a narrow^ margin of three 
votes, and returned triumphant to the city, where 
great crowds gathered in Wall Street and wel- 
comed him with cheers, while all the bells in town 
were rung and a salute of eleven guns was fired 
in his honor. 

Four weeks after this momentous victory Wall 
Street was alive with workmen removing: the 
blackened ruins of Trinity Church and tearing 
down the City Hall, which v/as to be virtually 
transformed into a new structure dedicated to 
the use of the first Congress of the United States. 
The task of designing this building and superin- 
tending its erection was intrusted to Major Pierre 
Charles I'Enfant, a French engineer who had 
served in the Revolution with great distinction 
under Baron Steuben, and was to win undying 
fame by planning the future capital of the nation.^ 
The edifice which this distinguished architect lo- 
cated on the site now partially occupied by the 

• L'Enfant is also credited with having designed a portion 
of St. Paul's Church. 

[ 100] 



^ X 




THE STORY OF A STREET 

Sub-Treasury Building and the southern end of 
Nassau Street was fated to have a very short his- 
tory, and the only mark it (or its famous pred- 
ecessor) has left is the curious jog in the north- 
west corner of Wall and Nassau streets, which 
marks the turn of the lane or alley bounding its 
western foothold. But at its inception New York 
believed it was to be a monument for the ages, 
and this idea was fairly justified. Certainly no 
building of such imposing proportions or such 
artistic design had ever been projected in any 
American city, and the sum expended on its 
construction was wholly unprecedented; but the 
speed with which it was erected and the quarrels 
between the architect and contractors undoubt- 
edly resulted in bad workmanship and sealed its 
doom. At its completion, however, it not only 
realized but surpassed all expectations; for its 
exterior effect, with its stately arches and classic 
columns, was exceedingly dignified and imposing, 
and the interior decorations were the wonder and 
admiration of all beholders. Indeed, the mar- 
ble pavement, the painted ceilings, the crimson 
damask canopies and hangings and handsome 
furniture, were considered altogether too mag- 

[lOl] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

nificent by the anti-Federalist press, which saw 
in them new proofs of the aristocratic tendencies 
of the new government, and bitterly attacked 
the distinguished architect, who in the end re- 
ceived Httle glory and no pay for his services.^ 

It was March 3, 1789, before the Recorder 
formally tendered the building to Congress, ^ but 



' The Common Council offered L'Enfant $750 and a grant 
of city lots (which later became very valuable) and the free- 
dom of the city. He deemed these provisions wholly in- 
adequate, however, and refused to accept them. It is in- 
teresting to note that Washington himself evidently found 
L'Enfant rather difficult during the building of the Federal 
City, as the national capital was then called, for in one of 
his letters he writes: "It is much to be regretted, however 
common the case is, that men who possess talents that fit 
them for peculiar purposes should almost invariably be 
under the influence of an untoward disposition or are 
sottish, idle, or possessed of some other disqualification by 
which they plague all with whom they are concerned. But 
I did not expect to have met with such perverseness in 
Major L'Enfant." 

^ Philadelphia was even then showing jealousy of New 
York, as appears from the following letter addressed to Re- 
corder Richard Varick: 

"Dr. Sir, — It is in my opinion entirely necessary that 
the Common Council should be convened this day in order 
to pass an act for appropriating the City Hall to the use of 
Congress. The act should be published in the papers and 
notified by yourself, or if you are not well enough, by a 
committee or member of your board to the Senators and 
Representatives as they arrive. The Philadelphians are 
endeavoring to raise some cavils on this point. The thing 

[ 102 ] 



.7 . 



M>., ^<-y //I- «-.t^^t ''■■ /"I 












iy^tU=. 



.■■/<9.e^ 



FACSIMILE OF HAMILTON- S HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED LETTER TO 

RICHARD VARICK, CONCERNING TENDER OF FEDERAL HALL TO 

CONGRESS 

(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



very few of the Senators or Representatives had 
then arrived in the city, and on the day appointed 
for the opening session there was no quorum in 
either House, Indeed, it was not until March 
30th that the House of Representatives organized, 
with Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, of Penn- 
sylvania, in the Speaker's chair, and six more 
days elapsed before proceedings were initiated 
in the Senate. On that day, however, the Con- 
gress performed its first important duty, and the 
following morning a brief paragraph in the daily 
papers announced that a canvass of the electoral 
vote taken in Federal Hall on Wall Street, April 
6, 1789, had resulted in the unanimous election 
of Washington as first President of the United 
States, and that John Adams, as recipient of the 
next highest vote, had been declared Vice-Presi- 
dent. 



must not pass the day. For propriety absolutely requires 
that the members should be offered a place by to-morrow 
which is the day for assembling. 

"Yrs A. Hamilton. 

" March 3d, 1789. 

"To Richard Varick, Esqr." 



XIX 

Washington's inauguration 

FROM that time forward the city was in a 
flutter of excitement and expectation, and 
the plans for Washington's reception were dis- 
cussed on every side. Even the arrival of Adams 
on April 20th, and his formal installation on the 
2 1st, though attended by highly dignified cere- 
monies, attracted scarcely any attention, and the 
news of the ovations which Washington was re- 
ceiving on his journey from Virginia stimulated 
the citizens to make New York's welcome worthy 
of the greatest event in its history. Certainly 
Wall Street, which had completely recovered its 
prestige, rose to the occasion, and a brave sight 
it presented to the crowds which invaded it on the 
morning of April 23, 1789. From the East River 
to the rapidly rising Trinity Church flags and 
banners waved from every building, many of 
which were also decorated with wreaths of flowers 
[ 104 ] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

and branches of evergreen; the stairs of Murray's 
Wharf were carpeted and the rails hung with 
crimson cloth, and on the pediment at Federal 
Hall appeared a colossal eagle grasping thirteen 
arrows and bearing the arms of the United States, 
which had been recently installed with imposing 
ceremonies as a finishing-touch to the Congres- 
sional building. 

Washington arrived at Elizabethtown Point, 
New Jersey, by nine o'clock on the morning of 
the 23d, but it was three o'clock in the afternoon 
before the roar of cannon and clashing of bells 
announced to the assembled throngs that his 
magnificent state- barge, manned by thirteen 
pilots in white uniforms, had been sighted in the 
East River, and by that time the whole water- 
front was black with humanity and every roof 
and window crowded to its utmost capacity. On 
swept the barge with an accompanying wave of 
cheers toward the Wall Street wharf, from which 
Captain Lockyer had made his ignominious exit 
fifteen years before, and as it swung alongside 
that historic landing-stage^ the bands joined the 

^ Among those waiting on the wharf were Governor 
Clinton, Colonel Morgan Lewis (subsequently Governor of 
[105] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

bells and the cannon in tumultuous welcome. 
At the same moment the man upon whom all 
eyes centred rose from his place in the stern of 
the barge, his plain uniform of buff and blue con- 
trasting sharply with the crimson trappings of the 
stairs, and as his hand touched the rail the thun- 
derous roar of cheers which greeted him silenced 
the music and the bells. Then on foot through 
that seething crowd, declining the carriage pro- 
vided for his use, Washington passed, amid the 
acclamations of the assembled thousands, up Wall 
Street to Queen (Pearl), and thence through 
that thoroughfare, whose sidewalks were so won- 
derfully wide that "three persons could walk 
abreast," to the Franklin House, which had been 
prepared for his reception. 

Thus ended this day of rejoicing, but during 
all the following week the city was agog with 
excitement, for from every direction and in all 
sorts of conveyances visitors kept arriving upon 
the scene, until every tavern and private dwelling 
were filled to overflowing, and even the poorest 
accommodations commanded extravagant pre- 

New York), the Mayor and other civil officials, the French 
and Spanish ambassadors, and many army officers. 
[io6] 



r ^ 













«:;k-^V^^^ _^^ 






«.. 



J.-;-^ 







THE STORY OF A STREET 

miums. Meanwhile more Senators and Repre- 
sentatives were making their appearance in Fed- 
eral Hall, and such men as Oliver Ellsworth, 
Robert Morris, Samuel Otis, Roger Sherman, 
James Madison, Jonathan Trumbull, Richard 
Bland Lee, Elbridge Gerry, William Samuel 
Johnson, John Page, and others whose names 
were or were to become famous in the history 
of the nation, could be daily seen in Wall Street 
discussing questions of state etiquette and cere- 
monial and other details of the impending in- 
auguration. Indeed, all the preparations for this 
great event had not been completed when the 
day arrived; and when church-bells began sum- 
moning the people to their various places of 
worship for the special services ordained for the 
morning of April 30, 1789, the congressional com- 
mittees hastily convened to perfect their arrange- 
ments. Meanwhile part of the inaugural pro- 
cession had formed in front of Federal Hall, and 
by the time the congregation of the Presbyterian 
Church issued from their services they found Wall 
Street ablaze with bunting and festooned with 
evergreens, and densely packed with spectators 
who blocked every approach and crowded all the 
[107] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

neighboring roofs and windows. It was twelve 
o'clock, however, before the procession started 
from the Presidential mansion, and even then the 
two Houses of Congress were still discussing with 
some heat and no little confusion the manner in 
which they should receive Washington and the 
form in which he should be addressed. Thus 
another hour slipped by, the dense crowds massed 
in Wall and Broad streets maintaining perfect 
order; and finally at one o'clock the head of the 
procession hove in sight, moving from Great 
Dock (Pearl) Street into Broad, Captain Stakes 
and his troopers easily parting the cheering mul- 
titude. Within a short distance of Federal Hall 
the Presidential carriage halted, and Washington, 
escorted by General Samuel Blatchley Webb (the 
Beau Brummel of the town). Colonel Nicholas 
Fish, Colonel William Smith, Colonel Franks, 
Major Leonard Bleecker, and John R. Living- 
ston, passed through the double line of troopers 
to the Senate Chamber, followed by the other 
committees and guests of honor in dignified 
procession. 

Then something very like a panic ensued 
among those in charge of the arrangements, for 

[ io8] 




WASHINGTON TAKING OATH AS PRESIDENT IN FEDERAL HALL, ON 
WALL STREET, APRIL 30, 1 789 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

not until this critical moment was it discovered 
that an important detail had been completely neg- 
lected and that there was no Bible in Federal 
Hall for the administration of the oath. Chan- 
cellor Livingston, however, rose to the occasion, 
and, hastily despatching a messenger to St. John's 
(Masonic) Lodge at 115 Broadway, procured the 
necessary volume, and in a few moments Wash- 
ington stepped upon the balcony fronting on 
Wall Street. For an instant he stood in full sight 
of the assembled multitude, but the wild out- 
burst of cheering which greeted his appearance 
drove him a step backward, visibly affected. He 
was dressed in a suit of dark-brown cloth with 
metal buttons ornamented with eagles, his stock- 
ings were white silk, and his shoebuckles silver. 
At his side he carried a simple steel-hilted dress 
sword, his powdered hair was worn in the fashion 
of the times, and close beside him stood Chan- 
cellor Robert Livingston, wearing his official 
robe. Grouped about these two men stood John 
Adams, George Clinton, Roger Sherman, Baron 
Steuben, Samuel Otis, Richard Henry Lee, Gen- 
eral Arthur St. Clair, and General Knox, and be- 
hind them, but not visible from the street, stood 
[ 109] 



THE STORY OF A STREl F 

members of Congress and other distinguished 
witnesses.* 

There was a moment's pause as the company 
took their positions, and then Samuel Otis, the 
Secretary of the Senate, carrying a crimson cush- 
ion on which rested the hastily borrowed Bible,^ 
presented it to the Chancellor, who administered 
the oath; whereupon Washington kissed the book, 
and the official proclamation, " Long live George 
Washington, President of the United States," 
ended with a thunderous crash of artillery and a 
renewed burst of cheering. 

Such was the day of glory which made New 
York the capital of the nation, in which for a 
brief but brilliant period Wall Street was to reign 
politically and socially supreme. 

' Alexander Hamilton watched the scene from the win- 
dow of his house on the opposite side of the street. Wash- 
ington Irving, then six years of age, was also among the 
spectators. 

^This volume is now in the possession of St. John's Lodge, 
in the Masonic Temple, New York City. According to some 
authorities its use on this historic occasion was not due to 
chance, as above set forth, but was deliberately planned. 



XX 

FROM A FAMOUS DOOR-STEP 

NEW YORK was flooded with visitors during 
the opening year of Washington's adminis- 
tration, and to many of them the cosmopohtan 
city of thirty thousand inhabitants must have 
been an astonishing and not altogether agreea- 
ble revelation. Certainly its accommodations for 
transients left something to be desired, for it had 
never recovered from the eff^ects of the war; its 
houses and streets were in a lamentable condi- 
tion, and sore discomfort was apt to be the por- 
tion of those who tarried within its gates. In- 
deed, the only quarter of the national capital 
which escaped the bitter complaints and scornful 
descriptions which are recorded at length in the 
diaries and correspondence of the day was Wall 
Street. For that well-ordered highway, however, 
even the most disgruntled strangers often had a 
word of praise, especially those who viewed it 

8 [hi] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

on fine afternoons from Daniel McCormick's 
door-step. Of course only a favored few were 
privileged to join the charmed circle of that 
prince of bachelors, but the guests invited to view 
the passing throngs from the point of vantage of 
No. 39/ on the south side of the street, witnessed 
a uniquely interesting scene in the company of 
people who knew everybody and everything about 
everybody, and could appraise to a nicety the 
social standing of all the passers-by. In fact, 
McCormick's hospitable mansion was the news 
centre and clearing-house for gossip of the fash- 
ionable world of which Wall Street was the centre 
in the first year of the republic. 

Prior to the war the social prestige of the 
thoroughfare had been second only to Pearl 
Street,^ but that famous highway, though it still 

•This is the old numbering of the street. It is very 
difficult to locate the corresponding house numbers of the 
street as it exists to-day, as there was no regularity or 
sequence in the numbers until late in 1790. No. 5 was, 
however, apparently at the northwest corner of Wall and 
William; No. 20 was one of the corners of Wall and Water; 
No. 32 was near the Coflfee-house; No. 44 one door east of 
the northeast corner of Wall and William, and No. 81 one 
of the opposite corners. 

^At this time Pearl Street was only known as such from 
the present State Street to Broad. From Broad to Wall 
[112] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

boasted the finest houses in the city, had seen its 
best days, and poHtically, socially, and histori- 
cally its rival now reigned supreme. Outwardly 
the appearance of Wall Street was not as attrac- 
tive as it had been ten or fifteen years earlier, for 
few of its splendid shade-trees remained, and that 
picturesque feature had gone, never to return, for 
the local authorities had passed an ordinance im- 
posing a penalty of five pounds for planting a tree 
anywhere below Catharine Street, except in front 
of a church or other public building, and no one 
seemed inclined to dispute the wisdom of this law. 
From an architectural stand-point, however, its 
condition was vastly improved, for Federal Hall 
was far more imposing than the old City Hall, 
and Trinity, which had risen from the ashes of 
the former building, was altogether more dignified 
and impressive than its predecessor. Moreover, 
the whole aspect of the street was more settled, 
substantial, and uniformly residential than it 
had previously been, for, with the exception of 
Baker's Tavern, the headquarters of a club at 

it was called Great Dock Street; from Wall to Chatham 
it was Queen Street. The finest houses were in the Great 
Dock Street section. 

[113] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



the corner of New Street, a few shops Hke Adam 
Prior's, the fashionable caterer at No. 59, and 
Panton's, the leading jeweller at No. 38, and 
the public buildings and churches, almost every 
house from Broadway to Pearl Street was a 
dignified private dwelling displaying the little 
oval tin plate which indicated that it had been 
duly insured in the Mutual Assurance Company 
against fire. 

It was not the Wall Street of brick and stone, 
however, which fascinated those who viewed it 
on gala days from Daniel McCormick's high 
door-step. What interested them was the pano- 
rama of Hfe, the constantly changing figures, the 
gay colors, the quaint characters, the men of 
mark, the fashions and foibles — all the human ele- 
ments of the miniature Vanity Fair that strutted 
and plumed itself on the fashionable promenade 
through which there swirls to-day a hurrying 
stream of hfe. Here approached a remarkable 
old gentleman gowned in a black clerical robe 
and bands, and wearing a white buzz wig, a 
three-cornered hat, and silver shoebuckles, who 
threaded his way through the crowd, represent- 
ing all the city could boast of worth, wit, and cult- 
[114] 




WALL STREET THE CKN.Ki. v.. . ..iii.w:-' , ij^^y 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations ) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ure, with a masterful clumping of his gold-headed 
cane upon the pavement, and the most cere- 
monious of salutations to right and to left. Any 
one of McCormick's coterie could inform the 
uninitiated that this was the Reverend Dr. John 
Rodgers, of the Presbyterian Church, a patriot 
it well became one to know, and a gentleman of 
such majestic dignity that he seldom appeared in 
public without his official robes, and rumor had 
it that he and his wife exchanged a formal bow 
and a deep courtesy each night when they re- 
tired. Here, too, appeared another gentleman 
of the old school in a scarlet coat and cocked 
hat, enthroned on the cushions of a quaint pony- 
phaeton, from which he surveyed the moving 
throng with a proprietary air, his hands resting 
proudly upon his massive cane, for Washington's 
physician. Dr. John Bard, was the fashionable 
doctor of his day, and he could count his pa- 
tients by the dozen on Wall Street when society 
took the air. The handsome man whom both 
of these old gentlemen distinguished with par- 
ticularly gracious bows was Sir John Temple, 
whose too great "inclination toward the Amer- 
ican cause" had lost him the Lieutenant-Gov- 
[115] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ernorship of New Hampshire, but made him the 
most popular of British consul-generals.* In- 
deed, Sir John was New York's official host, 
for he invariably welcomed every distinguished 
arrival in the city with a call of ceremony, and 
no one in the community was more generally ad- 
mired. 

Logically it should have been the French and 
not the English representative who found favor 
with the public in those days, but the observer 
who noted the Marquis de Moustier's red-heeled 
shoes and gold ear-rings in the crowd and in- 
quired concerning their owner would learn that 
His Highness was not in high favor with the 
elect, and that his sister, Madame la Marquise 
de Brienne, the lady greeting the passers-by from 
her sedan-chair, was courted for her entertain- 
ments and unmercifully ridiculed behind her 
back. It must be admitted, however, that the 
Marquis had been guilty of even worse manners 
than his sister's guests, for if the gossips at Mc- 



' Sir John Temple (who married Miss Bowdoin of Massa- 
chusetts), died in New York and was buried in St. Paul's 
church-yard. The tablet erected to his memory still adorns 
the church. 

[ii6] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Cormick's could be believed he had once actually 
brought his own cook to Vice-President Adams's 
house and caused private dishes to be served to 
him at his host's table, coolly remarking that he 
had had some experience with bad dinners in 
New York and could not afford to repeat it. 

Probably none of these distinguished gentle- 
men would have been recognized by a stranger, 
but there were faces in the moving throng which 
were familiar beyond the confines of New York. 
For instance, almost every Virginian would have 
been able to identify Cyrus Griffin, the President 
of Congress, and Lady Christiana, his wife, who 
were well known in that State; and Thomas 
Jefferson, lately returned from the court of Ver- 
sailles, in his red waistcoat and breeches, was 
quite as familiar to his compatriots as he was to 
many of the leaders in the city's social whirl. 
Here, too, the observer could note John Han- 
cock, whose name was writ large on the historic 
scroll, and Aaron Burr, the Attorney -General, 
conspicuous for the cordiality with which he 
was greeted upon every hand, particularly by 
the ladies, among whom he always found excep- 
tional favor; and Baron Steuben, the discipHnary 
[117] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

genius of Valley Forge, now president of the 
Society of the Cincinnati; and Colonel John 
Trumbull, the portrait-painter, who had learned 
his art under Benjamin West; and Commodore 
Paul Jones, whom society preferred to call the 
Chevalier. There were many interesting rumors 
in circulation about the doughty little Commodore 
in those days, of which the story that he and 
Captain Landais had had an exciting encounter 
was on everybody's tongue. I/andais was the 
naval officer who was credited with having dis- 
played more discretion than valor, and more 
prudence than discretion, in the battle between 
the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. In 
fact, according to Jones's story, the Frenchman 
had remained safely out of range during most of 
that engagement, and when he had at last vent- 
ured near enough to be of service he had lost 
his head and raked the Bon Homme Richard 
instead of his adversary, after which masterly 
performance he had again sought and held the 
horizon line until the day was won. Landais 
denied these charges to his dying day, but a court 
of inquiry had found him guilty on other grounds, 
and from that moment the world was scarcely 

[ii8] 



j . ■-'Fo- the;P ir B L I C. " , p 

TT AVINO yefterdny, late in tli*^ iifternoon; re- [, ^ 

X A ccived infqfinatlonof a report :irc!i);it;ii^ here. ..' 

thatJpctcrLantiais— (who uMS an nfae:- in Iticrnn- <■ ". 

,j dron TcmmTia'iided in Europe in the Lite war, r.nJ I 

(■^vns irr America, broke, ami rendered incapabh;' of : 

.! public/er-^icc,, 4n' a Colt Marri.i!—^F<^r matter^ (>*" a ■ i 

i date fnhferjuent tn, - arid , uneonnti^ed vith, the i 

4 charges I made agaifirt him in Europe, which , ire 1 

' of a natufe to x-all his Hfe In'qneftiori, aiTd of Mvhic)\, j . 
i themofV nr.iterial' proofs have never f)een }i'iblifhed,\ 1 

bit are lodged irt the office of F^^rcignAfFaiFsl— 1 i 

] di 5 pernMiaily infult me w this city, on FHdaf hift, i. i 

by rp'^tring iirmyface: I take thh method to dv-* \ I 

': Clare, that the faid report Is an abrnlute fnlfhv'^od— j c 

' it being impoQible that fuch" an iiirult fhioidd have j t 

been offijred to me, with KUfJiipify, , under any cir- [ ; 

cumftances whatever. | i 

- : 1?A0L /0:NES. ] 

Monday, OSioher ii)ih t^^f. ; 



CARD FROM PAUL JONES PUBLISHED IN "NEW YORK PACKET' 
(See the descriptive note in the List of IHustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

wide enough to hold him and his accuser. There- 
fore when it was rumored that he had confronted 
Jones on Water Street and spat upon the side- 
walk, declaring, with great delicacy, that his de- 
famer might regard the pavement as his face, 
there were those who thought the story charac- 
teristic of the Frenchman's histrionic instinct, but 
there were very few who believed that he could 
have roused his courage to the sticking-point and 
lived to tell the tale. Nevertheless, somebody 
must have credited the yarn, for Jones's spirited 
denial was printed over his own signature in a 
leading paper,^ and the gossips contmued to whis- 
per it, glancing apprehensively over their shoul- 
ders, for many a long day after. There were 
others among the passing pedestrians, however, 
of whom the gossips had a less cautious word. For 
instance, Mrs. General Knox, decidedly plump- 
er and altogether less romantic-looking than she 
was at the beginning of the war, when she eloped 
with Henry Knox (the Boston bookseller, turned 
artillerist), because her loyaHst father would not 
countenance a rebel son-in-law. But it was not 
the stout-hearted young bride who accompanied 

'N. Y. Packet, October 29, 1787. 
[119] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

her husband on his perilous campaigns and 
Hghtened their hardships and won Washington's 
regard whom the gossips celebrated, but rather 
the stout-waisted matron who was the Mrs. 
Malaprop of their circle and at whose original 
remarks society twittered, not too politely, be- 
hind its well-drilled fans. 



XXI 

FASHIONS AND NOTABLES 

IT was a fashionably attired company which 
filled the narrow sidewalks, the blue coats, va- 
riously colored waistcoats, and knee breeches of 
the men combining with the gay silks and satins 
affected by the women to lend brightness and an 
air of festivity to the scene. Indeed, some of 
the men arrayed themselves much more con- 
spicuously than the women; for John Ramage, 
the Irish miniature-painter, whose studio was on 
William Street, not far from Wall, was accus- 
tomed to join the promenade attired in a scarlet 
coat with mother-of-pearl buttons, a white silk 
waistcoat embroidered with colored flowers, black 
satin breeches, with paste knee-buckles, white 
silk stockings, and a small cocked hat perched 
on his curled and powdered hair. Contrasted 
with this gorgeous display the description of the 
latest Parisian novelty in favor with the fair sex 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

suggests extreme simplicity. This creation con- 
sisted of "a perriot and petticoat, both made of 
the same gray striped silk, trimmed all around with 
gauze cut in points, in the manner of Herrisons 
which were made of ribbons or Italian gauze." 
With this was worn "a large gauze handker- 
chief with four satin stripes round its border 
two very broad and the others less, the hand- 
kerchief itself being an ell and a half square, and 
for head-dress a plain gauze cap made in the 
form of those worn by the elders or ancients in 
the nunneries." ^ Not all the ladies, however, ex- 
hibited such quiet tastes, for here and there were 
to be seen "celestial blues" and "caracos and 
petticoats of Indian taffaty" and "perriots with 
two collars, one yellow and one white " ; and " blue 
satin shoes with rose-colored rosettes," and 
among the wearers of this brilliant raiment were 
numbered all the social leaders of their day. 
Here sauntered Mr. and Mrs. John Watts, the lat- 
ter better known as Lady Mary (for the elite of 
the republican court still scrupulously accorded 
their titles to women of rank), and Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury William Duer with his wife, 

^N. Y. Gazette, May 15, 1789. 
[ 122 ] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the Lady Kitty of her day; and Colonel and Mrs. 
Alexander Hamilton, and Senator Ralph Izard 
and his lady, who was Miss De Lancey of New 
York, and many another couple whose names 
were widely known. 

Indeed, Wall Street might have called the roll 
of the socially elect from Mrs. John Jay's famous 
list of guests almost any summer afternoon, and 
reported all present or accounted for; for many 
of the most prominent families, such as the 
Winthrops, the Jaunceys, the Verplancks, and 
the Ludlows, still lived on the highway, and 
several of the most distinguished members of 
Congress, such as Richard Basset, Benjamin 
Contee, Thomas Sumpter, Elias Boudinot, Lam- 
bert Cadwallader, and Richard Bland Lee, dated 
from Mrs. Lloyd Daubeney's* fashionable board- 
ing-house. In fact, this exclusive establishment 
made almost every visitor of distinction a tempor- 
ary resident of Wall Street, and fortunate indeed 
were those who secured its accommodations, for 

^Mrs. Lloyd Daubeney, whose maiden name was Mary 
Coventry, came of good family. She was related to the 
fifth Earl of Coventry. The family held Pew 14 in Trinity 
for many years. (Barrett's Old Merchants of New York, 
vol. iv.). 

[123] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

the Merchants' CofFee-house' was no longer in 
its prime, and Fraunces's Tavern was not a de- 
sirable hostelry after its proprietor, Black Sam, 
assumed charge of the Presidential menage. 
There was, however, another refuge for the way- 
farer at No, 8 1 (one of the southerly corners of 
Wall and William), and this private hostelry, 
which rejoiced in the plebeian name of Huck's, 
sheltered Daniel Huger, Thomas Tudor Tucker, 
Edanu-^ Burke, and other Congressional repre- 
sentatives from the South. 

From McCormick's hospitable door -step the 
visitor could likewise descry the residences of 
most of the exponents of New York's official 
life. At the northwest corner of Wall and Wil- 
liam streets lived Van Berckel, the minister from 
Holland; at No. 5, Samuel Otis, the Secretary of 
the Senate; at No. 8, the Postmaster, William Bed- 
low; at No. 13, John Lawrence, the first Con- 
gressman from New York city, who later became 
a judge and a United States Senator; at No. 44, 

' Though this historic hostelry, then known as Brad- 
ford's, was passing, it was utilized by the Marine Society, 
the New York Hospital, the Order of Cincinnati, St. John's 
Masonic Lodge No. 2, and other notable organizations for 
their early meetings. 

I 124 1 



New- York, May 7, 1 789. 



The Prefideni^s HouJJjold, 

^ ^T 7HEEREAS all Servants and others em- 

y V ployed to procare Provlfions or Nccef- 

faries for the Hoamold of the President of 

the United States, will be furnifhed with 

Monies for thofe Porpofes ; 

NOTICE IS THEREFORE GIVEN, that 
CO Accounts, for the Payment of which the 
Fablic might be confidcred as rel'ponfibie, are 
t<)''be' opened with any of them. 

SAMUEL FRAUNCES, 
May4i 1789. Steward of the Houfnold. 

AColieBiion of Natural Quriqfities. 



Of 
Re 

Al 



W 



N 



From AFRICA and the Coa^ of BRAZIL, I fo 



A WARNING BY WASHINGTON S STEWARD 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

General John Lamb, the first Collector of the 
Port; at No. 52, Richard Varick, the Mayor; at 
No. 58, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the 
Treasury; at No. 60, William Irvin, the Com- 
missioner of Accounts; at No. 64, James Culbert- 
son, the High Constable; while at other points 
lived the Dennings, the Wilkes, the Pintards, the 
Edgars, and other prominent New-Yorkers of 
their day. 

Such were some of the men and women who 
lived and moved and had their being in Wall 
Street, and the visitors who chanced to be present 
on one of the occasions when Washington attend- 
ed Congress in his state-coach saw the highway 
at its best. It was a wonderful creation, that 
canary-colored Presidential chariot,^ with its or- 
namental crests and its decorations of gilded 
nymphs and cupids, but Washington doubtless 
often wished that it was a trifle less conspicuous 
as he rumbled over the stones of Wall Street to 
Federal Hall. Indeed, there was probably noth- 



' Part of this historic vehicle was later cut into boxes 
and sold at a church fair, and the seat and steps turned into 
garden ornaments by the unimaginative individuals who 
obtained possession of it. 

[125] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ing in his many vexatious official duties which 
he so thoroughly disHked as making this pubHc 
exhibition of himself, despite the anti-Federalist 
sneers at his aristocratic tastes and tendencies. 
But the general public unquestionably enjoyed 
the spectacle, and when the ceremonial carriage, 
with a gorgeous coachman on its throne-like box, 
and a footman standing behind, and its six horses 
with their gay trappings and "painted" hoofs, 
swung into view, preceded by uniformed outriders 
and followed by an accompanying cavalcade, all 
the local world was there to see. 

As a matter of fact, Wall Street saw very little of 
the President during his official residence in New 
York. Of course he attended the so-called inaugu- 
ration ball, which was held on May 7, 1789, at the 
City Assembly Rooms on Broadway, just around 
the corner of Wall, where he danced two cotillons 
and perhaps a minuet, of which event Jefferson 
has left a description that would do credit to the 
most imaginative sensation-monger of the modern 
press. The Executive likewise honored the grand 
affair at the French Embassy, where those who 
took part in the quadrilles were attired in gor- 
geous costumes symbolical of America and France 
[126] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

and the festivities "were at their height at ten 
o'clock"; but there is very Httle evidence of his 
having been present at the other distinguished 
routs and entertainments of the day.* Nor did 
he grace the dinners for which Wall Street was 
famous in the years of its social glory, when many 
a distinguished company was gathered around its 
hospitable boards. This was partially due to the 
death of his mother, which occurred during the 
year, and to his own ill-health; but the difficulty 
of making distinctions was mainly responsible for 
his absence, and even then one of his letters shows 
that he and his wife never had an opportunity of 
dining alone. In fact, he had not been long in 
town before the necessity of adopting some gen- 
eral rules as to what invitations he would give or 
accept became apparent, and Hamilton' drew a 
simple plan regulating the Presidential entertain- 
ments, receptions, dinners, visits, etc., which. 



^ There were no less than three dancing - schools in the 
immediate vicinity of Wall Street at this time. 

* Washington appears to have drawn up a set of ques- 
tions concerning his official conduct and etiquette, and sub- 
mitted them to both Hamilton and Adams. (McMaster's 
History of the People of the United States, vol. i., p. 564; 
N. Y. Journal, May 7, 1789.) 

9 [127] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

with very slight modifications, has governed every 
occupant of the White House to the present day. 
Thus the etiquette of the Executive Mansion may 
fairly be said to have originated in Wall Street, 
where Hamilton and his fair lady were famed for 
their hospitality. 

At their table assembled such men as Jefferson, 
Knox, Adams, Jay, Madison, and other promi- 
nent statesmen, and the sentiments pledged on 
those occasions were eagerly awaited and various- 
ly interpreted, for more than one important event 
in the history of the nation had its inception at 
these little Wall Street dinners.^ Indeed, the po- 
litical leaders usually divulged their policies and 
platforms on such occasions through the medium 
of carefully worded toasts, and not all of them 
were as plain and pointed as that offered at the 
dinner of the General Society of Mechanics and 
Tradesmen, which suggested ^' A cobweb pair of 
breeches, a porcupine saddle, a hard-trotting horse, 
Qnd a long journey for all the enemies of liberty!" 
Hamilton was not the only resident of the street 

' It was at a dinner at Jefferson's house that the bar- 
gain was struck whereby the national capital was located 
at Washington. 

[128I 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

who was noted for entertainments of this sort, for 
Van Berckel, the minister from Holland, kept 
open house at the old Marston mansion on the 
northwest corner of Wall and William, and here 
all the members of the Diplomatic Corps with 
their wives and families were wined and dined in- 
formally and in state, and Daniel McCormick's 
bachelor banquets at No, 39 were justly the talk 
of the town. Of course there was nothing magnif- 
icent or luxurious in these entertainments. New 
York was still a provincial town of comparatively 
simple tastes, and there was nowhere any display 
of wealth. Society depended for its importance 
upon the personal qualities of its members, and 
in the heart of the capital there was gathered from 
all parts of the country a company which gave it a 
tone and distinction impossible under modern 
conditions. 



XXII 

THE PASSING OF NATIONAL HONORS 

BRILLIANT as its social record had become, 
Wall Street had not in the mean time lost 
anything of its official dignity and had materially 
added to its historic laurels. On March 25, 1790, 
Trinity was duly consecrated, and, with a cano- 
pied pew set apart for the President and another 
specially reserved for the Governor, it bade fair to 
continue its long tradition as the official place of 
worship. 

Meanwhile within the halls of Congress busi- 
ness of vital importance to the nation had been 
transacted. On April 7, 1789, a committee was 
appointed by the Senate to frame a bill for the 
judicial courts of the United States, and on June 
I2th of that year Richard Henry Lee reported 
the measures drawn by Oliver Ellsworth, of Con- 
necticut, which brought into existence the most 
powerful tribunal known to the history of the law. 
I 130 1 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Indeed, it was on September 24, 1789, in Federal 
Hall, at the corner of Wall and Nassau streets, 
that Washington performed the most important 
act of his admmistrative career, for on that day 
he signed the measure creating the Supreme Court 
of the United States. Certainly nothing ordained 
by Congress before or since that day has had 
so profound an effect upon American history as 
the creation of that mighty tribunal, and from 
the little court-house on the other side of Wall 
Street came two of its first judges — John Jay and 
Brockholst Livingston. 

In February, 1790, another significant event 
occurred in Federal Hall, for a petition presented 
by the Quakers praying for the abolition of slavery 
led to a sharp debate, and the next day the last 
word of advice which Franklin was destined to 
offer his countrymen was received in the form of 
a memorial signed by him as president of the 
Pennsylvanian Society for Promoting the Aboli- 
tion of Slavery. The discussion on this subject 
lasted for more than a month, and even at that 
early date there were muttered threats of secession 
in the air. It was not the slavery question, how- 
ever, which then suggested the dissolution of the 
[131] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Union, but rather Hamilton's policy for the as- 
sumption of the State debts, which, to the State- 
rights men, seemed to foreshadow the extinction 
of all local sovereignty. So bitter was the feel- 
ing against the Federal plan that Hamilton was 
forced to offer great concessions to carry his point, 
and the compromise he negotiated disposed of 
New York as the permanent national capital. 

Meanwhile the fates had long been combining 
to strip the city of its official honors, for an ex- 
traordinarily hot summer and a bitter winter had 
prejudiced all the visiting members of Congress 
and intensified the local jealousy and resentment 
of less favored communities, all of which were 
vigorously contending for possession of the prize. 
Such was the situation when Hamilton made his 
famous bargain with Jefferson by which the 
Potomac was selected as the site of the future 
capital, Philadelphia given a lease of power for 
ten years, and the national government author- 
ized to assume the debts of the several States. 
The part of this compromise which divested New 
York of its official character took the form of an 
Act of Congress which was signed by Washington 
on July i6, 1790, but Wall Street was privileged 
[132] 



%^^!«f^' 




^CSffri* 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

to witness one more interesting ceremony before 
it went into effect. 

Late in that month Colonel Marinus Willett, 
who had been in the South negotiating a treaty 
of peace with the Creek Indians, returned to 
New York, bringing with him the chief and 
twenty-eight warriors of the tribe. At every 
stopping-place on their journey Colonel Willett 
and his party had been received with great cour- 
tesy and hospitality, and on their arrival in New 
York they were met and welcomed by a new 
society whose members donned bucktails and 
otherwise arrayed themselves in full Indian cos- 
tume, and, assuming entire charge of the pro- 
ceedings, conducted the puzzled redskins to Fed- 
eral Hall. 

Such was the first public appearance of Tam- 
many, organized in 1789 to spread "the smile of 
charity, the chain of friendship, and the flame of 
liberty, and in general whatever may tend to per- 
petuate the love of freedom or the political ad- 
vantage of this country.'^ None of those worthy 
objects would seem to have called the society 
into the field as the self-appointed reception com- 
mittee to the visiting Creek Indians, but the oc- 
[ ^2,2, ] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

casion undoubtedly served to bring the organi- 
zation into prominence, and under its auspices 
the proceedings, though smacking somewhat of 
burlesque, were apparently conducted to every 
one's satisfaction. Indeed, the Society of the Cin- 
cinnati, whose aristocratic pretensions unques- 
tionably called St. Tammany into the field, fra- 
ternized with its rival on this occasion, and on 
July 27, 1790, the President made his last official 
visit to Wall Street in his ornate coach, with all 
the trappings of dignity, to sign a treaty with the 
Indians and pass the pipe of peace. 

It was August 1 2th when Congress adjourned, 
and on the 30th Washington was conveyed across 
the North River in the same magnificent barge 
that had brought him to the city which he was 
never to see again, and almost with his departure 
changes were begun in Wall Street which were 
to give it a new place in a very different phase of 
history. 



New- York City Lottery. 



SCHEME cf tt L O T T E R Y, /or the furfofe of raljn^ Seven Tliou- 
laiid Five Hundred Pounds, agrtiabU to an .'lit of ths Legislature of the State 
oj NEW-YORK, faffed •6th February, 1790. 




I Prize of 



■ 5° 
1 20 



lOCO 

500 
200 
100 

50 



C- 3°oo 

200i 
1500 
2000 
3000 
2500 
2400 
1800 
31S0O 



8346 Prizei. 
16654 BUmks. 



{25,000 Tickets, at 40s. each, - - 
Subjciit to a diJuLtion of 15 per Cent. 



r. 



THE objclof tliis LOTTERY being to raife a part of the fum advanced by 
the Corporation for repairing and enlarging the CITY-HALL, for the accom- 
modation of CONGRESS, which does fo much honor to the Arcliitc<ft, ns well zz 
credit to the City. The Managers prcl'ume, that t'aeir Fel!ov.'-Citi7.eiis will cheer- 
fully concur in promoting the fale cf Tickets, eipccially, a; tl.e fuccefs cf this Lgncry 
will relieve them from a Tax, which muft otherwife be laid to reimburfc the Cor- 
poration. 

The above SCHEME is calculated in a manner vcrv beneficial to Adventurers 
tliere not being t-wo Blanks to a Prize. 

The Lottery is intended to commence drawing on the frjl Monday in yin^^nj! 
ftext, or fooner if filled, of which timely notice will be given. A lift of the f,. iur.a:o 
numbers will be publilLed at the expiration of the drawing. 

Tickets are to be fold by th: fubfcribers, who are appointed Manat^cr; 
Corporation. 

ISAAC STOUTENBURGH, 
PETER T. CURTENIUS, 
ABRAHAM HERRING, 
JOHN PINTARD. 

New- York, March 6, I79». 



by ti'.« 



LOTTERY SCHEME TO PAY FOR FEDERAL HALL 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations ) 



XXIII 

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA 

DOWN by the Battery the building designed 
for the Executive Mansion was nearing com- 
pletion, and up on Wall Street Federal Hall, dedi- 
cated to the use of Congress, was almost paid for; 
but the President had gone never to return, and 
Philadelphia had become the national capital. 
The situation was disappointing, humiliating, 
and, in view of the futile preparations, even lu- 
dicrous, but New York wasted no time in idle 
lamentation. Socially and poHtically its year 
and a half of glory as the seat of the national 
government had given it a pleasant prestige, but 
the thoughts and ambitions of its people were 
concerned with more material advantages. More- 
over, it still remained the capital of the State, 
and with the legislature and the municipal au- 
thorities quartered in the City Hall, Wall Street 
was not wholly divested of political importance. 
[135] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



Indeed, within five months after Congress aban- 
doned it, the highway witnessed an event pro- 
foundly affecting the history of the nation, for in 
the building still commonly known as Federal 
Hall, on January 3, 1791, Aaron Burr was elected 
to a seat in the United States Senate, and from 
that moment a new and decidedly disturbing 
factor was injected into all political calculations. 
The exact causes of Burr's sudden elevation to 
power have never been satisfactorily determined, 
but it is possible that he was, even then, cultivat- 
ing the friendship of Tammany, over which he 
subsequently exerted a commanding influence, 
and it may well be that the approval of some of 
its prominent members contributed to his success. 
Officially the society had not as yet evinced any 
direct interest in politics, but there is evidence 
that its leaders were already manoeuvring for a 
political opening, and the advice of its patron 
saint to the children of "the second tribe" was 
deeply significant of coming events. ''The tiger 
affords a useful lesson for youy" observed that 
legendary sage. ''The exceeding agility of this 
creature, the extraordinary quickness of his sight, 
and, above all, his discriminating power in the 
[136] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

dark, teach you to be stirring and active in your 
respective callings; to look sharp to every engage- 
ment you enter into, and to let neither misty days 
nor stormy nights make you lose sight of the 
worthy object of your pursuit.^' ^ 

Probably this admonition had no controlHng 
influence upon the founders of the organization, 
but its activities had already brought it into 
prominence, and it early obtained a foothold in 
the City Hall for the public-spirited purpose of 
establishing a Museum of American History.^ 
Thus Wall Street, which had housed the first 
public library known to the city, became the re- 
pository of one of the earliest collections of his- 
toric relics assembled in the country, and not 
many years later it witnessed the founding of the 
New York Historical Society, whose early meet- 
ings were held in the picture-room of the City 

' Chief Tammany is supposed to have divided his people 
into thirteen tribes, each of which had a totem or symbol 
of clanship in the form of some animal whose virtues the 
chief recommended to their notice. The New York insti- 
tution claims identification with the second tribe. — Drake, 
History of the Tmnmany Society. 

''■ This collection was later moved to a house on the south 
side of the street, and was subsequently scattered, part of 
it passing into the possession of P. T. Barnum of circus 
fame. 

[ 137] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Hall. Meanwhile other societies secured accom- 
modations under the same roof, which thus be- 
came the headquarters of the Medical Society, the 
St. Caecilia, the Uranium, and similar organiza- 
tions, while toward the other end of the historic 
highway a group of auctioneering firms were 
quietly moulding its future. As a matter of fact, 
however, Wall Street's destiny had been deter- 
mined at that little dinner at Jefferson's house, 
where Hamilton had sold New York's political 
birthright to insure the assumption of the State 
debts, for most of the public stock* which the 
Treasury issued to finance its plan was marketed 
through the auctioneering establishments located 
at the eastern end of the still fashionable thorough- 
fare. Indeed, the first "stock-exchange" known 
to the city opened at No. 22 ^ about the first of 
March, 1792, was a direct effort on the part of 
the auctioneers to control this business, and it is 
a curious fact that two of the men associated in 
this enterprise, McEvers and Pintard, represent- 



' This was virtually the same as the modern government 
bonds. 

^ The street numbers used at this period practically cor- 
respond to those of the present day. 
[138] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ed families closely identified with Wall Street's 
previous history. 

No marked alteration had yet occurred in the 
appearance of the street, but under one of the 
few shade-trees^ which had escaped destruction 
during the Revolution there now gathered daily 
a small group of men who acted as brokers in the 
purchase and sale of the public stock, and their 
presence gradually effected a change in the 
character of the quiet residential neighborhood. 
Moreover, it was soon apparent that these men 
had determined to maintain the foothold they 
had acquired, for they were quick to resent the 
combination of the auctioneers which threatened 
to drive them from the field, and lost no time in 
declaring war against the allied firms. At a meet- 
ing held in Corre's Hotel on March 2i, 1792, 
they resolved to have no dealings with the monop- 
oHsts, and on March 17th of the same year they 
subscribed to a written memorandum agreeing 
upon a definite commission and undertaking to 
give each other preference in all brokerage trans- 
actions. 

1 A buttonwood which stood in front of Nos. 68-70 Wall 
Street. 

[139] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Such was the origin of the New York Stock- 
Exchange, but there was no immediate attempt 
to effect a permanent organization, and for some 
years the trading conducted under the old button- 
wood - tree was almost entirely confined to the 
marketing of the public stock. 

Meanwhile the first notable break from its 
ancient traditions was occurring at the eastern 
end of the highway, for the Merchants' Coffee- 
house was nearing the close of its distinguished 
career, and in 1793 it was practically eclipsed 
by a rival establishment housed in a modem 
structure erected by subscription,* on the Tontine 
plan, at the northwest corner of Wall and Water 
streets. This building, known as the Tontine 
Coffee-house, was conducted not only as an inn, 
but also as a merchants' exchange, and is fairly 
entitled to rank among the first office buildings 
known to the city, which then numbered thirty- 
five thousand inhabitants. Here in 1793 the 
associated brokers established their first official 
headquarters, and before long it became the 
storm centre of the absurd political agitation 

'Two hundred and three persons contributed $200 
apiece to this enterprise. 

[Uo] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

which then convulsed the entire city, for in de- 
fault of a better issue at that time the commu- 
nity ranged itself on either side of the impend- 
ing struggle between France and England, and 
the local elections were fiercely contested by the 
partisans of those countries, without the slightest 
regard to any other question. Provincial and 
undignified as such a contest was, party feeling 
ran high in 1793, and it was at this juncture that 
Wall Street was drawn into the inglorious fray. 



XXIV 

POLITICS AND BROKERAGE 

THE trouble began at the Tontine Coffee- 
house, where the zealous champions of 
France raised a hberty-cap, which the Enghsh 
contingent immediately threatened to remove. 
The French party thereupon set a guard over the 
building and defied their opponents, the support- 
ers of each side rushed to the rescue, and Wall 
Street was soon thronged with hundreds of angry 
men. Neither faction, however, seemed inclined 
to take the initiative, and after daring and double- 
daring each other with puerile provocations to 
the point of exhaustion, the farcical contest ended. 
About this time Citizen Bompard, a French 
naval officer, commanding the war-ship VAmhus- 
cadcy arrived in the port, and taunts and defiances 
were soon flying thick and fast over the glasses of 
the mettlesome sons of the sea who frequented the 
Tontine. Finally the Master of a United States 
[ 142 ] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

revenue-cutter arrived on the scene bearinc: a 
message from Captain Courtney, of his Majesty's 
frigate Boston^ challenging the French com- 
mander to a naval duel. This extraordinary com- 
munication was actually spread upon the books 
of the Coffee-house/ and when Courtney appear- 
ed in the town Citizen Bompard and he soon ran 
foul of each other. Thereupon the preliminaries 
were quickly arranged, and, sailing out of the 
harbor, the two valiant gentlemen pummelled 
each other with cannon for several hours, within 
hearing but just out of sight of the cheering 
throngs gathered on the neighboring hills." 

A year later the Franco-British controversy 
was still raging, and had it then been known that 
Jay had negotiated his famous treaty with Eng- 
land his candidacy for the Governorship would 
have been seriously affected. He was, however, 
safely inaugurated in the City Hall, July i, 1795, 
and the contents of the treaty did not become 



'^Pennsylvania Gazette, July 31, 1793. 

^ This remarkable contest took place near Sandy Hook. 
The English commander was killed. Some enterprising 
mariners actually advertised that they would take passengers 
down to Sandy Hook to see the fight. {American Daily 
Advertiser, August i, 1793.) 
" [143] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

public until the following day. The moment 
its provisions were understood, however, the par- 
tisans of France raised a howl of indignation, 
and, shrieking every charge against the statesman 
which ignorance and malice could invent, called 
mass-meetings to demand his repudiation at the 
hands of the Senate. One of these meetings was 
scheduled for Wall Street, and in front of the City 
Hall a turbulent throng assembled. There was, 
however, a strong anti - French contingent rep- 
resented in the crowd, and when efforts were 
made to adjourn the proceedings a scene of 
wild confusion followed. Richard Varick and 
Brockholst Livingston attempted to address the 
mob, but were howled down, and then Alexander 
Hamilton, mounting the steps of his house on the 
corner of Wall and Broad streets, tried to gain a 
hearing. The mob, however, was in no mood to 
listen to a man whom it regarded as a notorious 
champion of England, and stones were soon fly- 
ing through the air. "// you employ such strik- 
ing arguments^ I must retire,'* announced the ora- 
tor, and in a few moments the rabble swept by 
him toward the Government House on Bowling 
Green, where Jay was violently denounced, the 
[ 144] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

rejection of his treaty demanded, and a copy of it 
burned in front of the official residence. Neither 
Washington nor the Senate, however, paid the 
shghtest attention to these noisy demonstrations, 
and the ratification of Jay's negotiation which 
followed was soon justified by the event. In- 
deed, within a few years some of the very men, 
whose wild-eyed enthusiasm for France suggested 
a religious frenzy, were shrieking maledictions 
against that country and urging the administra- 
tion to make an immediate declaration of war 
against her. In the mean time, however, Jay 
did not add to his popularity, for in 1796 he in- 
curred the displeasure of Tammany by declining 
to honor the anniversary of the society by order- 
ing a display of flags — a precedent which has not 
protected other incumbents of the City Hall from 
similar outbursts of wrath. 

The volume of business transacted by the 
brokers during these turbulent years was not very 
great, and the dealings were still limited to a few 
stocks, but certain memoranda contained in the 
note-book of one of the small group who con- 
tinued to assemble under the buttonwood-tree in 
1793 show that some phases of the brokerage busi- 
[145I 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

ness were much the same in the eighteenth cen- 
tury as they are in the twentieth. For instance, 
in the note-book above mentioned, under date 
of February 13, 1795, this entry has survived: 
"/ het G. McEvers ID Dollars to 5 Dollars that 
there would not he 3000 votes taken at the ensuing 
election for Governor in the City and County 
of New Tork." And again: " Feby. 17, 1795, / 
bet Robert Cocks, Sr., a pair of satin breeches that 
"Jay zuould be elected Governor by a majority of 
500 or more.'^ 

The writer of these engagements was evidently 
doing a brisk business in the winter of 1795, but 
Jay was almost the last FederaHst upon whose 
success at the polls it would have been safe to 
count for a pair of silk breeches or any other 
advantage, for Burr's political star was in the as- 
cendant, and Tammany was preparing to supply 
him with w^hat Hamilton termed his "myrmi- 
dons" and Theodosia Burr called "recruits for 
the Tenth Legion." 

The Federalists were, however, still sufficiently 
intrenched in power to prevent their opponents 
from obtaining a charter for any rival to the 

Bank of New York, which had been organized 

[146] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

with Hamilton's assistance, and was, in 1798, 
located in a building erected on the site of the 
McEvers mansion at the northeast corner of 
Wall and William streets.^ During its existence 
of fourteen years this corporation had acquired 
virtual monopoly of the local banking business, 
and as New York was rapidly increasing in popu- 
lation, the advantage of the facihties afforded 
by the Federal institution became a valuable 
political asset. Indeed, it was openly charged 
that none but Federalist sympathizers could ob- 
tain accommodations at its hands, and in the 
legislature every effort to place a competitor in 
the field was summarily blocked. In 1799, how- 
ever. Burr appeared upon the scene as the sponsor 
for a company whose ostensible business was the 
improvement of New York's water-supply. In 
view of the recent epidemics, which were gener- 
ally attributed to bad water, the projectors of this 
public-spirited enterprise were promptly accorded 
the necessary charter, authorizing a capital of 
two million dollars, and providing that any sur- 
plus not needed for the immediate prosecution of 
the business ^^ might he einployed 172 any way not 

^ See inscription on present building No. 48 Wall Street. 
[147] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

inconsistent with the laws and Constitution of the 
United StateSy or of the State of Neiu Tork.^^ 

This legislative "joker" did not entirely escape 
notice, but in the face of the plausible explana- 
tions offered by the company's counsel and the 
honest anxiety of the authorities concerning the 
public health it practically met with no objection. 
Indeed, it must have been difficult for Burr and 
his adherents to conceal their joy v^hen they per- 
ceived the ease with which they were to accom- 
plish their ends, but their secret was well kept, 
and not until the Manhattan Company was 
safely established at No. 23 Wall Street, employ- 
ing its "surplus capital" in the banking husinessy 
did the Federalists discover that their enemies 
had stolen a march on them, and were in a posi- 
tion from which they could not be dislodged. 
From this time forward the business of chartering 
banks played an important part in the sessions of 
the legislature, and methods were employed to 
obtain the coveted privileges which would scan- 
dalize the most hardened of modern corruption- 
ists; but within a few years the Merchants',^ the 

* The Merchants' was located at No. 25, the United 
States at No. 38, and the Mechanics' at No. 16 Wall Street. 
[148! 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Mechanics', and the United States Bank were in- 
corporated, and all of them made their head- 
quarters on Wall Street. 

Less than ten years elapsed between the retire- 
ment of Congress and the establishment of the 
Manhattan Company, but during that time the 
population of the city had increased from thirty- 
five to sixty thousand people, and the character 
of its historic highway was being gradually trans- 
formed. Indeed, the advance-guard of fashion 
had already begun to move up to Park Row at 
the opening of the nineteenth century, and the 
gaps caused by this migration were quickly oc- 
cupied by the pioneers of finance. Business was 
still conducted on a very modest scale, however, 
and for some years the thoroughfare maintained 
a residential aspect. Fashion had never favored 
the neighborhood of the Tontine Coffee - house, 
and such private houses as there were in that 
vicinity fell an easy prey to the commercial in- 
vasion, but between Pearl Street and Broadway 
every foot of territory was contested, the private 
dwellings surrendering only one by one. Even 

The first two were incorporated in 1805, and the last in 
1810. 

[ 149] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

then those that capitulated often managed to 
conceal the fact until long after the event, for the 
days of conspicuous advertising had not yet ar- 
rived, and the new tenants frequently preferred 
to make no alteration in the premises. Here and 
there a sign was displayed, and at a few points 
the oldest houses were replaced by modern 
structures, such as that of the Bank of New York, 
but save in these particulars there was as yet 
little evidence of the coming transformation. 

Such was the aspect of the street on the morn- 
ing of July II, 1804, when a bulletin, displayed 
on the Tontine Coffee-house, attracted the atten- 
tion of the earliest arrivals, and in a few moments 
messengers were speeding through the city carry- 
ing the startling news that Hamilton and Burr 
had met in a duel, and that the former lay at the 
point of death. From that moment business was 
practically suspended, and all day long great 
throngs gathered before the Coffee-house, watch- 
ing the bulletins which reported the famous 
statesman's brief struggle for life. The end was 
announced on the afternoon of the 12th, and on 
Saturday, the 14th, Wall Street witnessed the 
most impressive funeral pageant known to the 
[150] 




A 



-%: 



■i^"'J 




TRINITY CHURCH IN 1804 
(See the descriptive note in the List of Illustrations.) 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

history of the city. Every window and roof was 
crowded with mourners as the body was borne to 
Trinity, and the junction of Wall Street and 
Broadway was lined with troops, the soldiers 
leaning their cheeks against the butts of their 
inverted rifles in an attitude of grief. Between 
their ranks passed the procession, which included 
the Governor, the Mayor, the judges, members 
of Congress, foreign ministers, representatives of 
Tammany, the Cincinnati, St. Andrew's, Colum- 
bia College, the Chamber of Commerce, members 
of the bar, delegations of law students, and scores 
of distinguished citizens.^ In front of the en- 
trance to Trinity a platform had been erected, 
and here Gouverneur Morris delivered an ora- 
tion, at the conclusion of which Hamilton's body 
was consigned with full military honors to the 
ground where Sir Henry Moore, Sir Danvers 
Osborne, James De Lancey, and others closely 
associated with Wall Street's history already 
slept, and where Robert Livingston, Marinus 
Willett, Morgan Lewis, and Robert Fulton were 
to find their final rest. 

1 The New York Evening Post and the New York Com- 
mercial of July 15, 1804. 



XXV 

THE LATEST PHASE 

WITH this event the poHtical history of the 
street may fairly be said to close, and dur- 
ing the next twenty-five years the new era, which 
had already dawned, slowly but surely developed. 
Close in the wake of the banks and insurance 
companies came the lawyers, and among the 
numerous representatives of the legal profession 
who established their offices on the highway about 
1809 was a young attorney whose work was 
destined to give it a new and unique distinction. 
Washington Irving had originally studied law 
in the offices of Brockholst Livingston and Josiah 
Ogden Hoffman, two of the early practitioners 
in the famous Mayor's Court at the corner of 
Wall and Broad streets. In 1809, however, he 
was associated in practice with his brother John 
T. Irving at No. 3 Wall Street, and another 
brother. Dr. Peter Irving, had an office in the 
[152] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

same building, and here it was that Washington 
Irving began the Knickerbocker History of New 
York which was to make him known to the 
whole English-speaking world.* 

Meanwhile New York had scored another as- 
tonishing gain in population, for in 1810 the 
census showed no less than ninety-six thousand 
inhabitants, an increase of over fifty per cent, in 
the preceding ten years, and by 1820 the city in- 
cluded fully one hundred and twenty-three thou- 
sand souls.^ Three years before this amazing 
result was achieved the brokers, who continued 
to assemble in steadily increasing numbers in 
Wall Street, organized under the name of the 
New York Stock and Exchange Board and 
adopted a written constitution, but they were 
soon driven from their customary haunt by an 
outbreak of yellow-fever, taking refuge for a time 
in Washington Hall, corner of Broadway and 

^ Washington Irving and Dr. Peter Irving were jointly 
responsible for the original idea, and they collaborated on 
the opening chapters, which were subsequently rewritten 
by Washington Irving alone. 

^ By 1830 population was approximately 202,000; by 
1840, 312,000; by 1850, 515,000; by i860, 805,000; by 1870, 
942,000; by 1880, 1,200,000; by 1890, 1,500,000 (f7. S. 
Census Reports). 

[153] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Reade Street, but eventually finding their way 
back to the Courier and Enquirer building at No. 
70 Wall Street, which sheltered them for a part 
of the decade closing in 1830. 

By this time the street which had once been the 
centre of government and the resort of fashion 
had become completely transformed. Federal 
Hall, the wonder and admiration of the city, had 
disappeared, the buildings erected on its site had 
gone up in smoke and flames; the Bank of the 
United States occupied the present Assay Build- 
ing; the great Merchants' Exchange, covering the 
block lately abandoned by the Custom - house, 
had been constructed, numbering among its 
many tenants the New York Stock and Exchange 
Board, and on all sides the hum of business was 
deepening into a roar. Old buildings were still 
giving way to new, however, and other changes 
were being efi^ected, when the great fire of 1835 
swept through the thoroughfare, levelling the 
monumental Merchants' Exchange and scores of 
other buildings to the ground; but almost before 
the ruins had cooled the work of tearing down 
and building up was resumed — and it has never 
ceased. "// is as difficult to zuenJ one's way 
[154I 



I 








THE STORY OF A STREET 

through Wall Street as it ever was^^ wrote the 
chronicler of the New York Mirror in 1839. 
^'Physically as well as financially there is peril 
in perambulating that street. Stocks may rise, 
but stones are falling prodigiously in all directions. 
The Manhattan and the City Bank are being torn 
downy and there are other edifices in old Wall Street 
under the besom. New Tork, ever since we knew 
it, has been a city of modern ruins — a perfect 
Balbeck of a days growth and a days dilapidation. 
The builder is abroad one day, and is relieved of 
his labors by the destroyer the day after. We never 
expect to see the city finished, but we have the 
greatest anxiety to see it fairly commenced.^' ^ 

Almost threescore years and ten have passed 
since those lines were printed, but they fairly 
depict the modern conditions. Moreover, three 
years before the writer in the old Mirror de- 
scribed the physical aspect of the street, another 
contributor to the same periodical recorded some 
impressions of its life, which reflect the condi- 
tions of to-day. 

'' Between ten and three o'clock,^' reports this 
observer of 1836, ''Wall Street is crowded with 

'New York Mirror, vol. xvi., p. 375. 
[155] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

speculators, money-changers, tnerchants, bank di- 
rectors, cashiers, and a whole menagerie of bulls, 
bears, and lame ducks, and all is anxiety, worry, 
fretfulness, hurrying to and fro, wrinkled brows, 
eager eyes, calculating looks, restless gestures, and 
every indication which follows in the train of 
grim-visaged care. Wall Street is a place to study 
character, and the moralist would find material 
there to rewrite the * Spectator,' the 'Tatler,' the 
'Rambler,' and the 'Guardian,' with scenes, in- 
cidents, personages, and manners peculiar to New 
York, and to no other city under heaven." ^ 

Such was the highway twelve months before 
its first great panic in 1837, and for the next 
three years the brokerage business languished to 
such an extent that the Stock and Exchange 
Board distributed its surplus among its members 
and virtually dissolved, though maintaining at 
least a nominal headquarters at one of the 
Jauncey buildings, No. 43 Wall Street. By 
1842, however, the financial storm was over, and 
for the next twelve years the Board occupied a 
large hall over the reading-room of the new 
Merchants' Exchange, erected on the site of the 

'New York Mirror, vol. xiv., p. 135. 
[156] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

building destroyed by the great fire, and so pros- 
perous did it become during the interval that 
rivals^ were induced to enter the field. During 
all this time the out-door market or place of public 
assembly for the brokers was on the corner of 
Wall and Hanover streets, but in 1854 the Board 
moved to the Corn Exchange Bank Building on 
the corner of William and Beaver streets, and 
from that day to this the Stock - Exchange has 
never, strictly speaking, had its headquarters on 
Wall Street. It would almost seem as though 
its change of base carried ill-luck, for one of 
the most notorious scandals associated with 
the history of banking and railroads in New 
York — the Schuyler frauds of 1854 — occurred 
about the time of its migration, and shortly after 
it moved again to Lord's Court at William Street, 
Beaver Street, and Exchange Place, the great 
panic of 1857 caused wide-spread disaster and 
alarm. The full force of this financial con- 
vulsion was felt in Wall Street, for by this time 
the highway had become the banking centre of 
the metropolis, whose population had risen to 

' It had at least one formidable rival prior to 1837, which 
the panic of that year virtually eliminated. 

[157] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

over half a million. Indeed, as early as 1850 
there were no less than fourteen banks and 
sixty-nine insurance companies quartered on the 
thoroughfare/ and as the day of the modern 
office buildings with their thousands of tenants 
was still far distant, these concerns almost mo- 
nopolized the limited territory. Every vestige of 
residential ownership had long since disappeared; 
the Presbyterian Church had been torn down 
and removed brick by brick to Jersey City; the 
Custom-house, occupying the former site of the 
City Hall at the Nassau Street corner, had been 
erected at an enormous cost; the street had been 
somewhat widened; the Trinity of 1790 had been 
demolished and the present structure erected, 
and other changes were occurring every year. 

It was not until 1863, however, that the old 
Stock and Exchange Board became known as 
the New York Stock - Exchange,^ and six more 
years elapsed before it merged its interests with 
those of its rival, the Open Board of Stock- 

* From a rare publication of that year in possession of 
the New York Historical Society called New York Pictorial 
Directory of Wall Street . 

^ It moved into its present quarters, Nos. 10 and 12 
Broad Street, December 9, 1865. 
[158] 




WALL STREET IN I908 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

Brokers. Then came that Black Friday of 
September 24, 1869, well within the memory of 
many of its present denizens, when the street 
swarmed with demoralized victims and half- 
crazed captains of finance, while a little group of 
conspiring speculators dealt out ruin to thousands 
before they were themselves engulfed in the pit 
which they had digged. 

From this time forward the history of the high- 
way cannot be distinguished from that of the 
neighboring thoroughfares. Indeed, much which 
it is accused of and much that it is credited with 
is not properly associated with it at all, for the 
wide field of operations now conducted in its 
name is by no means limited to its own narrow 
confines, and "the street" no longer means the 
canon down which Trinity gazes. 

But though its story has lost in color and pict- 
uresqueness during the last hundred years, Its 
fame within this period has almost reached the 
uttermost ends of the earth, and it would seem 
as though its latest phase, as the financial centre, 
was destined to endure. 

Yet who can tell ? The strip of land that 
has seen Stuyvesant's nine foot palisade rise to 

II [159] 



tHE STORY OF A STREET 

the gigantic walls of brick and stone which now 
enclose and shadow it — the spot where Zen- 
ger's words were burned and the Declaration of 
Independence read — the route along which royal 
pageants passed and the ragged Continentals 
made their triumphal march — the forum of the 
Revolution and the birthplace of the nation— 
the haunt of fashion and the heart of business 
— the home of Hamilton — the school of states- 
men — the firing-line of commerce — the battle- 
ground of politics and of money — the scene of 
financial master-strokes and speculative orgies — 
of loud-tongued victories and wild-eyed panics — 
the lair of the money-spiders and the work- 
shop of a Washington Irving and a Stedman — 
this is no mere street or thoroughfare. It is his- 
toric ground, of whose final destiny none dare 
prophesy. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF HISTORIC 

EVENTS IDENTIFIED WITH 

WALL STREET 

1644. Governor Kieft erected cattle-guard near line of 

modern street (April 4th). 
1653. Stuyvesant erected palisade on line of modem 

street (March-May). 
1685. Street surveyed and established (December 16th). 
1 69 1. Captain William Kidd became a property holder 

(May 1 6th). 
1696. Trinity Church erected. 
1699. Stuyvesant's palisade removed. 
1699. City Hall erected, corner of Wall and Nassau streets. 
1702. Colonel Nicholas Bayard tried for high treason in 

City Hall. 
1 7 19. First Presbyterian church built. 
1728. First New York library housed in street. 

1734. Zenger's Journal burned at pillory (November 6th). 

1735. Zenger's trial in City Hall (August 4th). 

1765. Stamp - Act Congress assembled in City Hall (Oc- 
tober 7th); petitions, memorials, etc., to King 
and Parliament draughted. 

1765. Stamp-Act riots (November ist-6th); stamps surren- 
dered and lodged in City Hall. 

1770. Statue of William Pitt erected, corner of Wall and 
William streets (September 7th). 

1774. Mock reception to Captain Lockyer at Merchants' 
Coffee-house (April 2 2d), corner of Wall and 
Pearl streets. 

[161] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

1774. Committee of Correspondence appointed at Mer- 
chants' Coffee-house (May 14th). 

1774. Paul Revere arrived with despatches from Boston 
(May 17 th). 

1774. Meeting of Committee of Fifty at Merchants' Coffee- 
house (May 19th). 

1774. Answer of Committee of Fifty, suggesting Conti- 

nental Congress, draughted at Merchants' Coffee- 
house, corner of Wall and Water streets (May 
23d). 

1775. News of the battle of Lexington received (April 

23d); seizure of the City Hall by Sons of Lib- 
erty. 
1775. Committee of One Hundred appointed in Merchants' 
Coffee-house to govern city. 

1775. Marinus Willett seized arms (June 4th). 

1776. Fortifications erected in Wall Street (April). 
1776. Washington and Provincial Committee established 

headquarters in City Hall (April). 
1776. Trinity Church invaded by armed mob (May). 
1776. Declaration of Independence read from steps of 

City Hall (July i6th). 
1776. Trinity destroyed by fire (September 21st). 
1776. General Charles Lee a prisoner in City Hall. 
1776-1783. Occupation by British troops. 
1783. Triumphal entry of American troops; Washington 

banqueted at Simmons' s Tavern, corner of Wall 

and Nassau streets (November 25th). 

1783. Alexander Hamilton became a resident. 

1784. James Duane, first American Mayor of New York, 

inaugurated at Simmons' s Tavern. 

1784. The Chamber of Commerce at Merchants' Coffee- 
house. 

1784. Reception to Sir John Temple at City Hall (No- 
vember 24th). 

1784. Thomas Jefferson appointed minister to France at 
City Hall (March loth). 

1784. Bank of New York organized. 
[162] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

1 784-1 785. The Mayor's court opened on the corner of 
Wall and Broad streets. 

1785. Celebration at City Hall on the first voyage of trad- 
ing vessel from the United States to China 
(May). 

1785. Continental Congress assembled in City Hall, corner 
of Wall and Nassau streets. 

1787. Ordinance dedicating Northwest to freedom passed 

by Continental Congress (July 13) in City Hall. 
1787-1788. "Federalist" papers written at No. ;i^ Wall 
Street. 

1788. Demonstration on adoption of Constitution (July 

26th). 

Corner-stone of Trinity laid; erection of Federal 
Hall begun by I'Enfant (August - September) . 

Federal Hall, corner of Wall and Nassau streets, 
tendered to Congress of United States (May 3d). 

Canvass of electoral votes in Federal Hall resulting 
in election of Washington and Adams. 

Washington arrived at Murray's Wharf at foot of 
Wall Street (April 23d). 

Washington inaugurated in Federal Hall (April 30th). 

Senate, in Federal Hall, passed bill creating Su- 
preme Court of the United States (June 12 th). 

1789. Washington, in Federal Hall, signed bill creating 

Supreme Court of the United States (Septem- 
ber 24th). 

1790. Trinity consecrated (March 25th). 
Petition presented to Congress for the abolition of 

slavery (February). 
Washington made last official visit to Wall Street 

(July 27 th). 
Aaron Burr elected to the United States Senate in 

Federal Hall (January 3d). 
First " stock - exchange " opened at No. 22 Wall 

Street (March ist). 
Stock - brokers first united for mutual protection 

(March 17 th). 

[163] 



1788 

1789 

1789 

1789 

1789 
1789 



1790 
1790 
1791 
1792 
1792 



THE STORY OF A STREET 

1793. Tontine CoflFee - house erected, corner of Wall and 

Water streets. 
1793. Franco-British riots. 
1795. Governor John Jay inaugurated at City Hall (July 

I St). 

1795. Demonstrations against treaty with England; Ham- 
ilton stoned, corner of Wall and Broad streets 
(July). 

1799. Manhattan Company obtained charter. 

1804. Hamilton -Burr duel (July nth). 

1804. Hamilton's funeral (July 14th). 

1809. Washington Irving became a resident. 

1835. Merchants' Exchange and many other buildings 
destroyed by fire (December). 

1846. Present Trinity Church completed. 

1863. New York Stock-Exchange organized. 

1869. Panic of "Black Friday" (September 24th). 



INDEX 



Adams, John, 103, 104, 109, 

117, 127, 12S. 
Ages of lawyers, 94. 
Ages of statesmen, 70. 
Alexander, James, 40, 41, 43. 
Arnold, Benedict, 81. 
Artillery mounts, Wall Street, 

16, 17, 27. 
Assay Building, 154. 
Attack on Trinity, 76, 77. 

Baker's Tavern, 113. 

Banckers, 62. 

Bank of New York, 95, 146, 

ISO- 
Banks, 148, 158. 
Bar of New York, 94. 
Bard, Dr. John, 115. 
Bamum, P. T., 137. 
Eb.3^el, Richard, 123. 
EaFtions, 16, 27. 
Bacxter, Tomas, 14. 
Bayard, Colonel Nicholas, 29, 

33- 
Bayard, Stephen, 48. 
Beckwith, Leonard, 22, 23. 
Bedlow, William, 124. 
Beeckman, 12. 
Bellomont, Earl of, 32. 
Benckes, Admiral, 20. 
Benson, Egbert, 94. 
Bessel, Israel, 72. 



Black Friday, 159. 
Bleecker, Major Leonard, 108. 
Block, Adrian, 6. 
Bompard, Citizen, 142, 143. 
Boudinot, Elias, 123. 
Bowling Green, 55, 57. 
Bradford's Tavern, ^24, «o/^. 
Bradley, Sarah, 25. 
Broad Street, 12. 
Brokers, 1 38-141. 
Burgomasters, 10. 
Burke, Edanu<?, 124. 
Burr, Aaron, 91-94, 117, 136, 

146-148, 150. 
Burr, Theodosia, 146. 

Cadwallader, Lambert, 123. 
Cape's Tavern, 85. 
Carleton, Sir Guy, 83. 
Carriage, Washington's, 125, 

1 26. 
Caterer, fashionable, 114. 
Cattle-guard, the, 1-6, 11. 
Chamber of Commerce, 90, 

151- 

Chambers, John, 45. 

Chartered West India Com- 
pany, 5. 

City Hall, 27, 29-33, SO. S6, 
57, 80, 97, 100, 135, 137, 

143-145. 158- 
Clark, Governor, 49. 



thp: story of a street 



Clinton, George, 49, 105, 109. 
Colden, Cadwallader, 49, 53- 

57- 

Collect Pond, 60. 

Columbia College, 151. 

Colve. Captain Anthony, 20. 

Committee of Correspond- 
ence, 68. 

Committee of Fifty, 69. 

Committee of One Hundred, 

^ 73. 74, 89- ., 
Common Council, 27, 31. 
Congress, Continental, 71, 96. 
Contee, Benjamin, 123. 
Com Exchange Bank, 157. 
Cornbury, Viscount, 26. 
Corporation Library, 31. 
Corre's Hotel, 139. 
Cosby, Governor, ^6, 37, 39, 

41.. 43- 
Courier and Enquirer, 154. 
Court, Mayor's, 97. 
Court of Exchequer, 43. 
Courtney, Captain, 143. 
Cox, William, 25. 
Culbertson, James, 125. 
Custom-house, 19, 73,154,158. 

Dane, Nathan, 97. 

Daubeney, Mrs. Lloyd, 123. 

de Brienne, Madame le Mar- 
quise, 116. 

Declaration of Independence, 
78, 160. 

De Heere Graft, 12. 

De Lancey, Etienne, 85. 

De Lancey, James, 43-45, 49, 

151- 
De Lancey, Stephen, 32. 
Dennings, 125. 
De Peyster, Abraham, 94. 
De Peyster and Bayard, 30. 
De Waal, 17. 
Dongan, Thomas, 22-24, 3°- 

[I 



Duane, James, 87, 89. 
Duer, Mr. and Mrs. William, 

122. 
Duke of York, 18, 19. 
" Duke's Plan," 16. 

Edgars, 125. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 85. 
Ellsworth, Oliver, 107, 130. 
Etiquette, 127. 
Evacuation Day, 83-86. 
Evertsen, Admiral, 20. 

Families, Wall Street, 47, 62, 

123, 125. 
Fashions, 121, 122. 
Federal Hall, 100-103, 107 > 

"3. 125, 131, 133, 154. 
"Federalist" papers, 99. 
Fields, the, 52, 56. 
Fire Department, 31. 
Fires, 79, 154. 
Fish, Colonel Nicholas, 108. 
Fort George, 36, 54, 56. 85. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 42, 131. 
Franklin House, 106. 
Franks, 108. 

Fraunces's Tavern, 124. 
Freedom, of the press, 39-42. 
Friends of Liberty and Trade, 

68. 
Fulton, Robert, 151. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 107. 

Griffin, Cyrus, 117. 

Griffin, Lady Christiana, 117. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 70, 
91—95, 99, 100, no, 125, 
127, 128, 132, 138, 144, 
146, 147, 150, 151, 160. 

Hamilton, Andrew, 45-48. 

Hainilton, Mrs. Alexander, 
123, 128. 
66] 



INDEX 



Hancock, John, 97, 117. 
Hangman, common, 36. 
Hardy, Sir Charles, 49. 
Harrison, Recorder Francis, 

35. 38. 
Historical Society, 137. 
History, Knickerbocker , of 

New York, 153. 
History, Museum of, 137. 
Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 94, 

152- 
Holland, peace with, 21. 
" HoUandia," 21. 
Huck's Tavern, 124. 
Huger, Daniel, 124. 

Inauguration ball, 126. 
Independence, Declaration of, 

78, 160. 
Indian wars, 9. 
Indians, 4, 16, 133. 
Inglis, Reverend Charles, 76, 

. 77- 

Insurance companies, 15S. 
Irvin, William, 125. 
Irving, John T., 152. 
Irving, Dr. Peter, 152, 153. 
Irving, Washington, no, 152, 

153- 
Izard, Senator Ralph, 123. 

Jackson, Brigadier-Gener- 
al Henry, 83. 

Jauncey Building, 156. 

Jaunceys, 123. 

Jay, John, 70, 92, 94, 95, 
128, 131, 143-146. 

Jay, Mrs. John, 123. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 92, 117, 
126, 128, 132, 138. 

Jeweller, leading, 114. 

Johnson, William Samuel, 

^ 51. 107- 

Jones, Paul, 118, 119. 

[16 



Jurors at Zenger's trial, 47. 
Jury, first "struck," 46. 

Kent, James, 94. 

Kidd, Captain William, 24- 

26, 28. 
Kidd, Mrs., 25. 
Kieft, Willem, 3, 5, 7. 
King, Rufus, 97. 
Knickerbocker History of New 

York, 153. 
Knight, Captain John, 22, 23. 
Knox, General Henry, 83, 

109, 119, 128. 
Knox, Mrs. Henry, 119. 
Knyphausen, General, 81, 82. 

Lamb, John, 62, 125. 

La Montagne, 12. 

Landais, Captain, 118. 

Land Gate. 16, 24. 

Lawrence, John, 94, 124. 

Lawyers, 90-95. 

Lee, General Charles, 80. 

Lee, Richard Bland, 107, 
123. 

Lee, Richard Henry, 97, 109, 
130. 

I'Enfant, Major Pierre Charles, 
100, 102. 

Lewis, Morgan, 94, 105, 151. 

Library, first New York, 31, 
78. 

Livingston, Brockholst, 94, 
131, 144, 152. 

Livingston, Chancellor Rob- 
ert, 109. 

Livingston, General, 108. 

Livingston, John R., 108. 

Livingston, Philip, 51. 

Livingston, Robert, 51, 70, 

Lockyer, Captain, 63-65, 105. 
London, the, 63. 

7J 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



Long Island Ferry, 28. 
Lord's Court, 157. 
Lovelace, Governor, 20. 
Low, Isaac, 70. 
Ludlows, 62, 123. 

Macarthy, Jennie F., 26. 
McCormick, Daniel, 112, 114, 

115, 117, 124, 129. 
McDougall, Alexander, 70, 75. 
McEvers, James, 53, 61, 138. 
McEvers mansion, 81, 147. 
McKean, Thomas, 51. 
Madison, James, 97, 107, 

128. 
Manhattan Company, 149. 
Marine Society, 124. 
Market, Meal, 28, 67. 
Market, Slave, 67. 
Mayor's Court, 97. 
Meal Market, 28,' 67. 
Mechanics and Tradesmen, 

Society of, 128. 
Mechanics' Bank, 14S, 149. 
Medical Society, 138. 
Merchants' Bank, 148. 
Merchants' Coffee-house, 66- 

71, 73, 81, 88, 90, 112, 124, 

140. 
Merchants' Exchange, 154, 

156. 
Millington, Rev. John, 31. 
Mirror, New York, 155, 156. 
Mobs, 52-57, 142, 144. 
Mobs, Wall Street, 52-57. 
Moesman, 19. 

Monckton, Major-General, 49. 
Monroe, James, 97. 
Moore, Sir Henry, 49, 151. 
Morris, Chief-Justice, 43. 
Morris, Gouverneur, 69, 70, 

151- 
Morris, Robert, 107. 
Moustier, Marquis de, 116. 

[1 



Muhlenberg, Frederick Au- 
gustus, 103. 

Murray's Wharf, 64. 

Museum, 137. 

Mutual Assurance Comipany, 
114. 

Nancy, the, 63. 

National City Bank Build- 
ing, 19. 

New Amsterdam, burghers 
of, 10. 

New Amsterdam, houses in, 
8. 

New Amsterdam, surrender 
of, 18. 

New Netherland, Council of, 

4- 
New York, great fire in, 79, 

154. 

New York Hospital, 124. 

New York Mirror, 155, 156. 

New York Stock and Ex- 
change Board, 153, 156, 

New York Stock - Exchange, 
158. 

New York Weekly Journal, 
36, 37, 40, 43, 78. 

Nicolls, Richard, 19, 20. 

Notables, 123-125. 

Notice of Palisade Commit- 
tee, II. 

Ogden, John, 2. 

Ogden, Richard, 2. 

Oort, John, 25. 

Order of Cincinnati, 124, 134, 

151- 
Ordinance of 1787, 97. 
Osborne, Sir Danvers, 49, 151. 
Otis, James, 51. 
Otis, Samuel, 107, 109, no, 

124. 
68 1 



INDEX 



Page, John, 107. 

Palisade, 10-23; contract for, 
14; cost of, 27; destruction 
of, 27; plan of, 13; repairs 
to, 15, 17; screen of, 16; 
specifications of, 14. 

Panics, 98, 156, 157, 159. 

Panton, 114. 

Parade-ground, 13, 21. 

Park Place, 20. 

Pearl Street, 8, 12, 17, 52, 
84, 106, 112, 1 13. 

Philadelphia, 102, 132, 135. 

Philipse, Frederick, 44. 

Phoenix, Daniel, 89. 

Fillory, Wall Street, 35, 50. 

Finckney, Charles, 97. 

Pintards, 125, 138. 

Pioneer proprietors, 19-23. 

Pirates, 26. 

Pitt, William, 58, 62, 84. 

Politics, 142-145. 

Population of New York, 

153- 
Presbyterian Church, 29, 30, 
54, 61, 72, 81, 85, 96, 107, 

ITS. 158. 

Press, freedom of, 39-42. 
Prior, Adam, 114. 

Rector Street, 20. 
Representatives, 107. 
Residents, 62, 123-125. 
Restless, the, 6. 
Revere, Paul, 59-71. 
Riedesel, General, 81, 82. 
Riots, Stamp-Act, 52-59. 
Rodgers, Reverend Dr. John, 

115- 

Roosevelt, Nicholas and Cor- 
nelius, 54. 

Rousby, Christopher, 26. 

Rutgers vs. Waddington, 93. 

Rutledge, John, 51. 

[I 



St. Andrews' Society, 151. 

St. CiEcilia, 138. 

St. Clair, General Arthur, 

109. 
St. John's Lodge, 109, 124. 
St. Paul's, 100. 
Schepens, 10. 
Schuyler, General, 89. 
Schuyler frauds, 157. 
Sears, Isaac, 68, 70, 73. 
Senators, 107. 
Sharp, Rev. John, 31. 
Sherman, Roger, 107, 109. 
Simmons, John, 87, 88. 
Simmons 's Tavern, 87. 
Slave Market, 67. 
Slaves, is^ 95. 131- 
Smith, Colonel William, 108. 
Smith, William, 40, 41, 43. 
Smit's Vly, 21. 
Society, Library, 31. 
Society, Medical, 138. 
"Sons of Liberty," 56, 73. 
Stakes, Captain, 84. 
Stamp-Act Congress, 50-52. 
Stamp-Act delegates, 51. 
Stamp-Act riots, 52-58. 
Stamp Distributor, 53. 
Stamps, surrender of, 57. 
Startins, 62. 
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 

160. 
Steuben, Baron, 100, 109, 

117. 
Stock - brokers, open board 

of, 158. 
Stock-Exchange, 140. 
Street Nos., 112, 138. 
Street, shaping of the, 28-34. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 8, 9, 11, 

15, 17, 18, 159. 
Sub-Treasury, 10 1. 
Sugar refinery, 29. 
Sumpter, Thomas, 123. 

69] 



THE STORY OF A STREET 



Supreme Court of 
States, 130, 131. 



Tammany, 133, 134, 136, 

137. 145. 151- 
Tavern, Bradford s, 124, note. 
Tavern, Cape's, 85. 
Tavern, Fraunces's, 124. 
Tavern, Huck's, 124. 
Temple, Sir John, 92, 115, 116. 
Thompson's, 29. 
Thompson, Gabriel, 29. 
Thurmans, 62. 
Title Guarantee and Trust 

Company, 26, note. 
Toasts, 128. 
Tontine Coffee-house, 140- 

143, 149, 150. 
Tory lawyers, 90. 
Treasury, 138. 
Trespass Act, 93. 
Trinity Church, 12, 16, 29, 

30, 51, 54, 59, 72, 75-77, 

79, 82, 100, 104, 113, 130, 

151, 159. 
Trumbull, Colonel John, 118. 
Trumbull, Jonathan, 107. 
Tucker, Thomas Tudor, 124. 

United States Bank, 148, 

149. 154- 
Uranium, 138. 

Van BerckeLj John Peter, 

124. 
Van Couwenhoven, 12. 
Vandalism, 78. 
Van Dam, 43. 
Van Dyck, Abraham, 74. 
Van Tienhoven, Cornelis, 2, 

4, 25. 
Van Twiller, 4. 
Varick, Richard, 89, 102, 

125, 144. 

[i 



United Verplanck mansion, 61, 81. 
Verplancks, 123. 

Wall Street, adoption of 
Constitution in, 100; as 
centre of government, 86- 
90; attack on Trinity in, 
76-78; British occupation 
of, 80-83; burning of Week- 
ly Journal on, 35-38; Con- 
tinental Congress in, 96- 
99; Creek Indians in, 133; 
dawn of financial era in, 
135-141; departure of Con- 
gress from, 134; early build- 
ings in, 29, 30; election of 
Washington and Adams 
in, 103; entry of American 
troops, 83-85; erection of 
Federal Hall in, 100-102; 
famous lawyers in, 91-95; 
fashions and notables in, 
121-130; first financial tri- 
umph of, 15; first house in, 
19; first library in, ^i; 
first survey of, 22; fortifi- 
cations, 16, 17, 75; historic 
legislation in, 130-132; lo- 
cation of, 6 ; location of 
whipping-post, cage, stocks, 
and pillory on, 32; Lock- 
yer's reception in, 63 - 65 ; 
modern development of, 
152-160; news of Lexing- 
ton in, 72; No. eight, 124; 
No. eighty-one, 124; No. 
fifty-eight, 91, 125; No. 
fifty-six, 25; No. fifty-two, 
125; No. five, 124; No. 
forty-eight, 147; No. forty- 
four, 16, 20, 124; No. four, 
16; No. sixteen, 148; No. 
sixty, 125; No. sixty-eight 
to seventy, 139; No. sixty- 
70] 



INDEX 



four, 125; No. thirteen, 
124; No. thirty-eight, 148; 
No. thirty-three, 91; No. 
twenty-five, 148; No. 
twenty-three, 148; No. 
twenty-two, 138; Paul 
Revere in, 59-71; pioneer 
proprietors, 19-30; poli- 
tics and brokerage in, 142- 
151; preparations for de- 
fence of, 74, 75; punish- 
ment of slaves on, 33; 
removal of whipping-post, 
pillory, etc., from, 50; 
residences in, 62; resort of 
pirates, 26; shaping of, 
28-34; slave market on, 
28; society in, 111-120; 
southerly line of , 1 1 ; Stamp - 
Act Congress in, 51-53; 
Stamp - Act riots in, 52- 
59; sugar refinery on, 29; 
Tammany in, 133; "Tea- 
party" in, 63; trial for 
treason on, ^^; Washing- 
ton inaugurated in, 104- 
iio; wells of, 31; Zenger's 
trial in, 39-49. 



Washington, George, 75, 8^, 
85, 102-106, io8-iio, 125, 

„/3i. 134, 13s. 145- 
Water Poort, 17, 24. 
Watts, Mr. and Mrs. John, 

122. 
Webb, Samuel Blatchley, loS. 
Wells, 31. 

Wessel, Frederick, 31. 
West, Benjamin, 118. 
West India Company, 5. 
Wharf, Murray's, 64. 
Whitefield, 85. 
White House, etiquette of, 

128. 
Whites, 62. 
Wilkes, 125. 
Willett, Marinus, 70, 74, 89, 

^33^ 151- 
William Street, 6, 27. 
William the Testy, 5. 
Wilton, 62. 
Winthrops, 62, 123. 
Wolfertsen, 12. 

" Zeelandia," 21. 
Zenger, John Peter, 36, 37, 
39-49, 160. 



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